Aakash Hassan
KL News Network
SRINAGAR
Kashmir Origin filmmaker, Musa Sayeed, would be first Muslim to write a Yiddish movie –Menashe.
Directed by Joshua Z Weinstein, a New York based filmmaker, the film is “Contemporary screen depictions of Brooklyn’s Hasidic community,” The Hollywood Reporter review mentions.
Musa Sayeed was born in Indiana, USA after his parents migrated from Sopore town of Kashmir.
Thirty-two-year-old, Sayeed, has already produced four films including Valley of Saints—a 2012 film in Kashmiri language.
The film was Syeed’s directorial debut.
A romantic film set in Dal lake, Valley of Saints, also raises an environmental issue surrounding the Dal.
The film won the Sundance Film Festival World Dramatic Audience Award in 2012 and tied for the Alfred P. Sloan Prize with the American film Robot & Frank.
The characters in the film were mostly Kashmiri, including Gulzar Bhat, a boatman as film’s lead, followed by Mohammed Afzal, a journalist by profession and Neelofar Hamid, a local girl.
Gulzar and Afzal, later became first Kashmiries to walk on Red Carpet in Germany.
Interestingly, the film was shot during 2010 unrest of the valley.
As much of the areas were under curfew, crew stayed on houseboats over the lake and script was changed to include scenes of curfew and unrest.
