IFFI to showcase film on Indian soldiers

Paris-based Indian filmmaker Vijay Singh's film "Farewell My Indian Soldier", which is based on Indian soldiers during World War I, will be showcased at the ongoing 47th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) here.

"I might live in Paris and my films 'Jaya Ganga' and 'One Dollar Curry' might have travelled to 60 festivals worldwide, but I always make it a point to premiere my films in India," Singh said in a statement.

"Farewell My Indian Soldier" is a docu-fiction on the 1,40,000 Indian soldiers who came to Europe to fight in World War I.

Co-produced by Silhouette Films and RSTV, and supported by the Embassy of France in India, "Farewell My Indian Soldier" uses rare archive, historical testimonies, 100-year-old Indian war songs and 600 insightful letters written by soldiers to tell the fascinating story of Indian soldiers of whom 10,000 were never to return to their country.

"Farewell My Indian Soldier" brings to the fore what Indian soldiers lived through on the Western Front, the heroic period during which they fought in legendary battles like those at Ypres and Neuve Chapelle.

The film also talks about the casualties and diseases that afflicted the soldiers; their experience of the British Army and the English hospitals; the tragicomic situations the French and the British faced while feeding the Indian soldiers wedded to their caste and religious beliefs; and the hospitality of the French hostesses, which won the hearts of the Indian soldiers during their convalescence in French barns.

The film festival started here on November 20 and will end on November 28.

--IANS

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