Supriyo Sen with the trophy in Berlin

Calcutta, Feb. 16: A short film on the Wagah border has won Calcutta-based documentary film-maker Supriyo Sen this year’s Berlin Today Award, a part of the Berlin Film Festival.

The award — conferred by Berlinale Talent Campus, a school for upcoming film-makers around the globe — was announced in the German capital on February 8. This year’s theme was “My Wall”, to commemorate 20 years of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

“This was the only award announced that evening. It was my evening,” the film-maker, who grew up in Dum Dum area of Calcutta, told The Telegraph from Berlin.

Making the moment even more special, the festival director announced that the documentary would be screened during the closing ceremony — a first for a short film.

Sen was chosen from among 350 applicants to the film school. The 41-year-old, who has won the national award twice, pitched his project in front of 10 German producers, at the 2008 Berlin Film Festival.

The presentation won the film-maker a spot in the final five of the competition and the support of young German producers, Fabian Gasmia and Henning Kamm.

The 12-minute documentary, showing the change of guard at the Wagah border through the eyes of three children from a nearby village, was shot in October last year.

The end product was described by acclaimed film-maker Wim Wenders, who headed the jury, as a “convincing manifesto against any wall that divides people”.

The audience was just as appreciative. “The film deals with a serious issue but is humourous and sweet. The humour touched the audience so much that all the screenings received standing ovation,” said Sen, hours before walking the red carpet with the likes of Costa Gavras and Kate Winslet.

Kamm felt the film was a “mutual vision” of people with “different horizons”.

“It is amazing how close we all grew in such a short time. We have become a family and this is only the start of a bright co-operation,” said the producer.