MATUNGA, November 19, 2004: The International Film Festival of India (IFFI), scheduled for later this month at Goa (which falls in the newly erected Panjim Province), will have an unusual first-time entry -- a full-length feature film in Kokborok, the indigenous language of Tripura, made by a Catholic priest.                 'Mathia' (The Bangle), which features in the 'Panorama' section of the IFFI, is scheduled for screening at 'Screen-I,' the largest of the IFFI venues, according to the film's Director, Fr. Joseph Pulinthanath, a priest of the Salesian Order of Don Bosco of the Kolkota Province. Made by Sampari Pictures, a Don Bosco production house registered with the Eastern India Motion Pictures Association (EIMPA), 'Mathia' was screened last Saturday at the ongoing Kolkata Film Festival.

    Mathia is a story of trust, betrayal and redemption built around the social phenomenon of witch-hunting," Fr Joseph told Press Trust of India recently. "This is the first time that a film from Tripura features in a premier film event of the country," he said."Winner of the Best Feature Award at the International Film and Television Festival of Niepoklanow, Poland, last year, 'Mathia' was shot mainly in Baramura, a tribal heartland in Tripura, with an entire village and its surrounding jungles as sets. "For those involved, this was an education in Social Cinema where the production team, the technical crew and the artistes formed a family which wonderfully merged into the bigger family of the villages where the shoot was done," he said.

    Fr. Joseph, an initiator of the film appreciation course in the North-East, said. "I do not see making a film as a deviation from my priestly duties. It is the duty of the priest to serve people. My film was one way of serving the cause. Even if I can influence even one person against witch-hunting, I will consider myself successful," With Meena Debbarma and Jayanta Jamatia, both tribals, in the lead, the 'Mathia' team has been felicitated by the Kokborok Sahitya Akademi and Tripura Government's Tribal Research Institute.

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