Still from Lipika Singh Darai’s Eka Gachha Eka Manisa Eka Samudra, one of the films to screened by Film Society of Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar, May 28: Film Society of Bhubaneswar, which regularly screens world cinema for movie buffs to enjoy, will be showing the two national award winning films of contemporary Odia filmmaker Lipika Singh Darai.

The screening will be held on the evening of May 29 at the Jayadev Bhavan auditorium, here.

Eka Gachha Eka Manisa Eka Samudra (A Tree, A Man, A Sea), a 27-minute film made in 2012 will be followed by screening of another short film by Darai titled Kankee O Saapo (Dragonfly and Snake).

Darai hails from Mayurbhanj district. She studied audiography at the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, which exposed her to various genres of cinema.

She was trained from early childhood in Hindustani classical vocal music by Guru Prafulla Kumar Dash, in whose memory she made her first film that won the Silver Lotus Award for the Best Debut Film of a director in the non-feature section at the 60th National Film Awards.

At present, she is working from Odisha with her husband Indraneel Lahiri, a cinematographer. They work as a team and their focus is to make films in Odia and the Ho language, her mother tongue.

Their first collaboration, Kankee O Saapo received the National Film Award for the best narration/voice-over for a film this year. Darai will be present for an interaction with the FSB members.

“I am thrilled and would like to have a healthy discussion on films with Lipika,” said Amartya Bhattacharya, another contemporary filmmaker.

Ilo Ilo (2013), the third screening of the evening, is set in Singapore during the 1997 Asian financial crisis. It chronicles the day-to-day drama of the Lim family and their live-in maid Teresa, a Filipino immigrant.

An outsider in both the family and Singapore itself, Teresa initially struggles to find her footing in the new community.

Just as Teresa becomes an unspoken part of the family, unforeseen circumstances in an uncertain economy will turn her world upside down.

Ilo Ilo won the Camera d’Or (best first feature film award) in the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, and is written and directed by Anthony Chen from Singapore.