GANGTOK: Sandup Lepcha’s experimental narrative ‘In a Happy Place’ has been adjudged as the winner in the Async International Short Film. Nearly 800 short films had been submitted for the competition organised and judged by Oscar winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto (The Revenant) and Palme d’Or winning Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul, a press release informs.

‘In a Happy Place’ is a 7-minute film shot in Gangtok with local kids this September with an analogue handycam, says the filmmaker. Sandup was informed about his achievement through a message on December 15 night from the organisers.

The 29-year-old amateur filmmaker hails from Bojoghari area, Gangtok.

“Sandup Lepcha's film enchanted me. The image did not surrender to the music, nor did the music to the image-the film granted the music depth in meaning but also used the music to leap into transcendence. I wanted to share more time with these children on screen. I wanted to listen to the sound of the rain, the wind, I wanted to smell the earth and feel the moisture. The film made me want to join the children on that land,” Ryuichi Sakamoto quoted on his website.

Sandup, in addition to the award and cash prize of 3,000 US $ to be presented later, will be entitled with a license to use one piece of new music composed and produced by Ryuichi Sakamoto for his next film project. His short film will be included in the 5.1ch Blu-ray edition of Async. The film will also be introduced as a promotional film on Ryuichi Sakamoto’s official site, sitesakamoto.com, the official website and YouTube/Vimeo channels of the Japanese label Commons and the official website and YouTube/Vimeo channels of the international label Milan Records.

Moreover, Apichatpong Weerasethakul has offered to take an advisor role for the next film project of Sandup, it was informed.

Sandup started dabbling in filmmaking after getting inspired from the works of cinema’s biggest proponents like Kurosawa, Fellini, and Hitchcock. He wrote, shot, edited and directed ‘In a Happy Place’ short film all by himself.

The cast has students, aged between 10 years and 14 years, from Tashi Namgyal Academy. They are Maheshwari Kharka, Tanushree Chettri, Vyomeshwari Thapa, Devrath Kharka, Avdesh Pakhetra and Harsh Agarwal. They were equally floored by the news and are motivated to explore the world of cinema, said the filmmaker.

Sandup is also a writer and his collection of short stories is due to be released in the spring of 2018.