Papilio Buddha selected for Montreal Film Festival

Papilio Buddha, which created furore for a controversial speech, is now a favourite of many international film festivals. After visiting various film festivals and winning several film critic awards, the movie has been selected for the Montreal World Film Festival 2013, to be held from August 22 to September 2 at Montreal, Canada. The film will be screened in the ‘Focus on World Cinema’ section.It will also mark the film’s North American premiere.
Written and directed by Jayan Cherian, Papilio Buddha tells the story of a group of displaced dalits in the Western Ghats. It brings into focus an example of the epic land struggles which are fought in regions all over India, and also maps the environmental degradation and abuse of pristine mountain habitats by outside forces. The film was denied censorship initially, owing to a controversial speech in it by Ambedkar where Gandhi’s motives are questioned. It was granted censorship later on, after the speech was muted.