Venice Film Festival winner Anuparna Roy roots for Palestine in viral speech

At the 82nd Venice Film Festival, debutante filmmaker Anuparna Roy created history by winning the Orizzonti Award for Best Director for her film Songs of Forgotten Trees. During her acceptance speech at the festival’s closing ceremony on Saturday, she used the platform to voice her support for Palestine.

Purulia-born filmmaker Anuparna Roy says she stands with Gaza victims, in her Venice Film Festival victory speech

The filmmaker, who hails from the Purulia district of West Bengal, explains that it is everyone's duty to stand with Palestine, and claimed so fiercely, despite the possibility of hate that she might receive from "her country".

“Every child deserves peace, freedom and liberation, and Palestine is no exception. It is a responsibility to think for a moment and stand beside Palestine. I might upset my country but it doesn’t matter to me anymore," Anuparna Roy says.

Anuparna Roy became the first Indian to win the Orizzonti Award for Best Director at the Venice Film Festival.

"I come from a village where girls are married off early, given rations instead of books in government institutes. My friend Jhuma was one married at 13 under a state scheme, then she vanished. Her silence stayed with me. Songs of Forgotten Trees is shaped by such memories about women surviving systems designed to erase them. It follows two migrants whose lives quietly intersect in a city that never pauses. I wanted to portray women without judgement or metaphor. My film is an attempt to reclaim narrative space for the unseen, the complex, and the quietly resilient," Anuparna's statement read.

Starring Naaz Shaikh and Sumi Baghel, Songs of Forgotten Trees follows the lives of two women whose lives get intertwined in Mumbai. The movie was produced by Bibhanshu Rai, Romil Modi and Ranjan Singh and presented by Anurag Kashyap.

Co-produced by Navin Shetty and Anuparna Roy, the plot revolves around a migrant actress in Mumbai, named Thooya, who sublets her apartment to a corporate worker, Swetha. Despite their different backgrounds, the two women develop an unexpected bond that surpasses their ties as roommates.

Anuparna holds an undergraduate degree in English literature from Burdwan University and later pursued mass communication studies. She also trained in acting at Anupam Kher’s Actor Prepares Institute and attended several acting workshops.

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