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“They had to walk first and then row the boat, and later on they would have to take some other vehicles to reach the school. Which meant six hours of journey for them to get education. In the schools, we found out that there was only one room and each bench was a class. Yet, it was inspiring to meet the kids and adults with whatever knowledge they have, who knew the value of education. There we felt that it needed to be carried forward. That hope and passion brought the story out,” shared director Prithviraj Das Gupta, of ‘Green Blackberries’ that tries to portray the struggles and obstacles faced by children for gaining education, in the remote villages in North Eastern India and how they try to overcome that.
This is the second film as a writer and a director, of this independent filmmaker and film editor.
The main characters of the movie, Nishu and Nima, were inspired from real-life characters. The film, set in the backdrop of picturesque North Eastern villages, tries to depict how, even after having the passion to study further, nature becomes a villain for these children. It’s a real story inspired from many other real stories.
Recalling how he conceptualised the idea of the film, Gupta said, “It was a long journey of two and a half years. The idea for the story came in 2015 when I was at Delhi University and we went to the North East to shoot a documentary on tribal people. We went to many remote villages and found that there is only one school in 20 villages and the kids had to travel kilometres to get education.”
The schools in these regions are often being set up in places which are difficult for people to reach. However, people there know the value of education and change will happen gradually, he hoped. The film is multilingual as Nepali, Bengali and Reang - the languages of some tribal in North East - are being used in it.
The film was shot in the border area between Assam and Mizoram. In North East India, there are many communities who use different kinds of languages, including Assamese and Bengali. “By making the film multilingual, I have tried to represent the entire North East,” says Gupta.
