Jim Birmant of Paris-based Bliss and Mathias Schwerbrock of Film Base Berlin have boarded Indian-born director Prashant Nair’s new project Umrika as co-producers.
Birmant produced French-Swedish comedy Sound Of Noise, which premiered in Cannes’ Critics Week in 2010, while Film Base Berlin co-produced Farhan Akhtar’s Don 2 in 2011.
A Hindi comedy set in a small Indian village, Umrika follows the story of two brothers. When the elder one abandons his native village for a bigger and better life in the US, leaving behind only a mysterious trail of letters, the younger one must follow in his footsteps to find out what truly happened to his brother.
”Umrika will Film Base Berlin’s first German-French-Indian co-production,” said Schwerbrock. “It is a strikingly strong and powerful story and I trust Prashant to make it into an extraordinarily moving and emotional picture with a universal appeal reaching out to a big international audience.”
The film is expected to start shooting in India by May 2013. Its script was selected for the Mumbai Mantra Sundance Lab 2012 and the project was also a finalist for the Mahindra Sundance Global Filmmaking Award this year.
”Umrika is a heartwarming look at the mythology and lure of America and its impact on the lives of a village family,” said Nair.
Nair won the Director’s Vision award at the ninth Indian Film Festival of Stuttgart for his debut film Delhi In A Day. It was released in India by PVR Directors’ Rare earlier this year.
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