Odia documentary ‘The Sea & Seven Villages’ Selected for Screening at IFFI 2023

Bhubaneswar, Oct 26: Eminent film director Himansu Khatua’s Odia documentary ‘The Sea & Seven Villages’, produced by Dr Iti Samanta and presented by Dr. Achyuta Samanta under the banner of Kadambini Media has been selected for screening at the prestigious 54th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2023 in Goa, being held from November 20 to 28. The documentary has been selected in the Indian Panorama under the category of ‘Non-Feature Films’ along with 20 other films.

The selection of the documentary was announced by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, the organiser of the IFFI, through a government release. In all, 25 feature films have been selected for screening at the festival.

‘The Sea & Seven Villages’ is based on exhaustive research by Khatua about Satabhaya, a region in the Kendrapada district of Odisha. Once a thriving place, the documentary talks about an area comprising a cluster of seven villages that fell hostage to climate change because of rising sea levels and erosion. It talks about five villages that have taken watery graves with time. The documentary also gives a real picture of the life and struggle of the people of Satabhaya, known for their daredevilry attitude in facing the onslaught of the sea.

The documentary has won numerous accolades and has been screened at the Lane Doc Fest in the United States, the 15th International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala, Jagran Film Festival, Madurai International Documentary Short Film Festival, the 10th Siliguri Short and Documentary Film Festival, besides other festivals.