Matters India reporter
Narakkal, Sept. 12, 2019: A documentary film, almost 3 years in the making, featuring the life and times of legendary Gandhian, Sarvodayam Kurian of Vypin Island in Ernakulam district of Kerala has been nominated to two International Film Festivals, in Poland and Italy.
The producer and director have been invited to the closing ceremony of the 34th International Catholic Film and Multimedia Festival scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 16, 2019 in Warsaw, Poland.
They are also invited by Religion Today Film Festival which received some 1,700 films and selected the film to be part of the 22nd edition, scheduled to be held from 2nd to the 10th of October in Trento, Bolzano, Rovereto, Merano, Arco, Pergine and Borgo. After the stop-overs in Trentino Alto Adige / Suedtirol, Religion Today’s journey will continue in Italy and in the world to Rome, Nomadelfia, Jerusalem, Bangladesh, Nepal, to name but a few.
The Man Beyond Boundaries documentary film has been nominated for the Special Jury Award: People and Religions.
“Let us also take advantage of this [letter] to give you our congratulations. We were very impressed by the quality and content of your film and are very much looking forward to having it as part of our festival,” said the Religion Today Festival Coordinator Olha Vozna writing to producer of the film Mr Cherian Parakkal.
Earlier on 15 August 2019, the 50 minute Malayalam language documentary entitled Athirukal Illtha Oral (Man Beyond Boundaries) with subtitles in Engliah had its world premiere on Goodness TV both in India and USA.
The film was released at Narakkal Sarvodayam Kurian’s karmabhoomi on 28 January 2019 to mark the legend’s birth centenary and 20th death anniversary.
Late Kurian Parakkal of Narakkal (11th January, 1920 to 15th July, 1999) Vypin Island in Kerala, strictly a Gandhian (follower of Mohandas K. Ghandhi) was never a card holding member of the Sarvodaya movement which worked to promote a kind of society that Gandhiji envisioned.
The Vypin Island people hailed him Sarvodayam Kurian on his return from Trincomalee (Sri Lanka) assignment with British Medical Corps after World War II as he took up social work.
Kurian’s social work among the needy, poor and helpless, and the common people included Gandhian methods of padayathra (walk for cause) and sathyagraha (form of non-violent social and political struggle which includes even fast unto death).
When the people of Vypin saw Kurian working on Gandhian and Sarvodaya principles, they spontaneously added the fond appellation “Sarvodayam” to his name as he was known as father of 500 children, an island Samaritan, man who stood with the poor. He humbly accepted the popular title and it further motivated him to do more. Thus for some 50 years of his life, he was known both in Kerala and abroad as the one and only Sarvodayam Kurian.