India’s ‘Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know’ receives Cannes’ La Cinef award for Best Short

FTII student Chidananda S Naik’s film Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know won the first prize of La Cinef for Best Short at the Cannes Film Festival.

The short film is based on a popular Kannada folklore of an elderly woman stealing a rooster after which the sun does not rise.

In an interview with The New Indian Express earlier, Naik a proud Kannadiga, said he always wanted to make a local-language film. And the dream seems to have come true now as his film is making the right noises on foreign shores.

‘Sunflowers were the First Ones to Know’ is a 16-minute short is story of a village thrown into chaos by an elderly woman who steals a rooster. To bring the rooster back, a prophecy is invoked, sending the old lady’s family into exile.