Nirmal Baby Varghese’s Malayalam historical documentary film ‘Thariode’ selected as a semi-finalist in the International Short Films category at iFilms International Short Film Festival, Maharashtra.
This documentary film based on the Wayanad gold rush, tells the history of gold mining in Thariode, one of the oldest cities of Malabar region, British India. Film also charts the history of other gold mines of Malabar in the 19th century.
The film has already been selected to Košice International Monthly Film Festival 2020 (Slovak Republic), Lift-Off Global Network Sessions 2021 (England), Reels International Film Festival 2021 (Maharashtra) and Standalone Film Festival & Awards 2021 (Los Angeles), Hollywood International Golden Age Festival 2021 (New York). The film also made it to the finalist in the best trailer category at the Košice International Monthly Film Festival and won the best documentary award at Hollywood International Golden Age Festival, Best Jury Award at Reels International Film Festival, best director award in the documentary short category at 7th Art Independent International Film Festival 2020, Thiruvananthapuram. Recently, the film also won the best educational programme award at the Kerala State Television Awards for the year 2020.
The film is produced by Baby Chaithanya under the banner of Casablanca Film Factory. Mathew M Thomas and Fr. Biju Mavara are the executive producers. Director of photography: Midhun Eravil, Nirmal Baby Varghese. Second unit director of photography: Aswin Sreenivasan, Shalvin K Paul, Shobin Francis. Production designer: Sanitha A T. Editing: Nirmal Baby. Final mixing: Rajeev Viswambharan. Associate directors: V Nishad, Arun Kumar Panayal, Saran Kumar Bare. Voice over: Aliyar. Translation and subtitles: Nandalal R. Censor script: C S Ajith.
Director Nirmal’s upcoming movie is ‘Vazhiye’, first found-footage movie in Malayalam with Hollywood music director Evan Evans. He already announced a fictionalization of Thariode, starring Australian-British actor Bill Hutchens. Cinematic remake is titled as “Thariode: The Lost City”, it also stars Luing Andrews, Alexx O’Nell, Courtney Sanello, Amelie Leroy and Brendan Byrne and legendary actor Roger Ward in supporting roles.
