Taking inspiration from Lagaan

Director Stefan Jagar, who has made the highly acclaimed ‘Horizon Beautiful’, written by his students of Ethiopia’s Blue Nile Film Academy, is eager to gauge children’s reactions when he gets to screen his film on Monday at the film fest. “It’s not just a film of two people belonging to different backgrounds but it also has a universal theme,” he points out

For director Stefan Jagar, the maker of ‘Horizon Beautiful’ which will be vying to bag the Golden Elephant in the best live action section at the ongoing film festival , the festive atmosphere is yet to sink in. “I arrived three days ago and was bowled over by the opening ceremony. I gorged on to some colourful Andhra curries and Hyderabadi biryani,” he smiles, in an exclusive conversation with Hans Talkies.

His film, the first ever Swizz-Ethiopian project, is the story about a little boy who is interested in playing soccer. “He stages a drama to kidnap a soccer boss who arrives from Switzerland. His idea is to rescue him so that he can be taken to Switzerland where he can hone his football skills,” shares Stefan, the Swizz-born filmmaker.

His film’s making itself was nothing short of a film script. “I was invited to teach filmmaking at Ethiopia’s Blue Nile Film Academy. After enjoying two weeks of teaching I thought let’s make a film with students. The institute joined me. Students came up with the script based on short notes that I had. In the end, it was their story that proved to be the talking point of the film,” he recalls and adds, “It’s not just a film for children but for everyone.”

A member of the Swiss and European film academies, he feels that Ethiopian filmmaking needs a serious push. “In Switzerland there is structure and government, too, gives subsidies unlike in Ethiopia where there are little means. Even though there are some film institutes, they have to look for themselves. However, I’m glad that my film has motivated some people but there’s still a lot of ground work that needs to be done.”

Thanks to his film, he’s been travelling across the world. “ICFFI is the sixth festival that I’m participating. We have eight more to go and I hope there are many more in the pipeline. We’ve received a special award from Poland recently. We’ve sealed a contract with World Sales and the film has been sold in Japan.”

He recollects getting inspired from ‘Lagaan’, which he watched in Ethiopian language along with his students. “We’ve watched it three weeks before we went on to make ‘Horizon Beautiful’. We observed how the filmmaker has shot the sport. The film possessed great emotions and no wonder why it was such a big success. While out set-up was small compared to ‘Lagaan’, we’ve too managed to hit the right notes.”

He also has work cut out as he is also the jury member of the festival. “Besides getting a glimpse of Hyderabad, I have too many things to look forward too. But right now I’m eager to check out student’s reactions when my film gets screened at Public Gardens on Monday,” he smiles.