RAVE REVIEWS: Saiful Mondal (camera in hand) and friend Ashikul with chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee at Writers? Buildings during an earlier visit in 2004. A Telegraph picture

In 2004, Saiful Mondal and his friends had won hearts and rave reviews in Greece with Ami. In July 2005, they did the same in Italy with Aamra.

The second venture by a group of inmates of Muktoneer (a destitutes? home in Dum Dum), Aamra has won the best film award in the prestigious Kids for Kids International Film Festival in Naples.

The film, which deals with wildlife preservation, was one of the 350 entries from across the world.

Last year, Ami, a 20-minute documentary by the kids on life seen through their eyes, had bagged the first prize in the Athens edition of the festival.

Eleven-year-old Saiful, the boy behind the camera, was effusive while speaking to Metro over phone from Naples on Sunday.

He was elated at having kept his promise to ?Buddha jethu (chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee). ?Ami bolechhilam jethu ke, ebaro aamra jitbo, aamra shotti jitlam (I told him that we would win even this time, and we have won).?

Barely hours ago, the award had been announced at a glittering ceremony attended by thousands.

Saiful and friend Ashikul, along with Muktoneer?s secretary Swapan Mukherjee, met the chief minister at Writers? Buildings last week, before starting for Naples.

?We will give you a grand feast once you return. I wish you success,? Bhattacharjee had told the children.

Mukherjee was no less ecstatic. ?It is unbelievable that we have won the prize. The chief minister told the boys to continue their creative endeavour and assured them of all help from the government,? said Mukherjee from Naples.

The Kids for Kids International Film Festival, which got underway on June 30, was organised by the International Centre of Film for Children and Young People and the European Children Television Centre. It is the only film festival in the world where all the entries are by children.

?There were many films and it was a touch-and-go affair, but everybody appreciated Aamra,? added Mukherjee.

Shot and directed by Saiful, Aamra revolves around wildlife and nature preservation. The film opens with woodcutters chopping trees and hunters killing animals.

Hopes, however, are not lost, as a child plants a sapling and strikes up friendship with the animals. The friendship develops and the animals (all enacted by children) become protectors of nature.

The frames later show how the animals and the child come together to chase away the hunters and woodcutters.

The award is surely a boost for Saiful to carry on in his mission that helps him forget his nightmarish past ? the days he used to spend in an agricultural field being tortured by his employer.

It was a stroke of luck that he was finally spotted and rescued by Mukherjee and his team.

?My father died of tuberculosis and I had to toil in the field. But my life has transformed after I met my friends in the home. I hope to continue making films,? said Saiful.

He is scheduled to arrive in the city early on Tuesday.