Nirmal Baby Varghese’s ‘Thariode’ selected to documentary film festival in Germany
Malayalam historical documentary film ‘Thariode’, directed by Nirmal Baby Varghese has received an official selection to the Golden Tree International Documentary Film Festival in Germany.
‘Thariode’, tells the story of gold mining in Thariode, one of the most ancient cities of the Malabar region. Geographically, Thariode is a long, narrow coastline on the southwestern shoreline of the mainland Indian subcontinent. The film also charts the history of gold mining in other areas of Malabar in the 19th century. The film is produced by Baby Chaithanya under the banner of Casablanca Film Factory.
The film has already found critical acclaim in the festival circuit. The film has already been selected to many international film festivals including Košice International Monthly Film Festival 2020 (Slovak Republic), Lift-Off Global Network Sessions 2021 (England), Reels International Film Festival 2021 (Maharashtra), Standalone Film Festival & Awards 2021 (Los Angeles), Hollywood International Golden Age Festival 2021 (New York) and iFilms International Short Film Festival 2021 (Maharashtra).
The film won the best documentary award at Hollywood International Golden Age Festival, Best Jury Award at Reels International Film Festival, best director award and best of the best award in the documentary short category at 7th Art Independent International Film Festival 2020 held in Thiruvananthapuram. Recently, the film also won the best educational programme award at the Kerala State Television Awards for the year 2020. The film also made it to the finalist in the best trailer category at the Košice International Monthly Film Festival and semi-finalist in the International Short Films category at iFilms International Short Film Festival.
The film is produced by Baby Chaithanya under the banner of Casablanca Film Factory. Mathew M Thomas and Fr. Biju Mavara are the executive producers. Director of photography: Midhun Eravil, Nirmal Baby Varghese.
'Thariode' team is as follows- Second unit director of photography: Aswin Sreenivasan, Shalvin K Paul, Shobin Francis. Production designer: Sanitha A T. Editing: Nirmal Baby. Final mixing: Rajeev Viswambharan. Associate directors: V Nishad, Arun Kumar Panayal, Saran Kumar Bare. Voice over: Aliyar. Translation and subtitles: Nandalal R. Censor script: C S Ajith.
Nirmal is a native of Kavummannam in Wayanad. He is also preparing a cinematic remake of the same documentary. The cinematic remake is titled "Thariode: The Lost City". The director had previously revealed a list of international actors, including Bill Hutchence, Louise Andrews, Alex O'Neill, Courtney Zanello, Amelie Leroy, Brendan Byrne and legendary actor Roger Ward associated with the movie. The director is in talks with some foreign film production companies and actors for the film. Nirmal’s upcoming movie is ‘Vazhiye’, the first found-footage movie in Malayalam with Hollywood music director Evan Evans.