An Industry Case Study
Narrative | Dramatic Features
Film Name: The Silent Echo
Genre: Drama
Length of film: 17 mins
Director: Suman Sen
Producer: Dominique Welinski, Ram Krishna Pokharel, Arifur Rahman, Bijon Imtiaz, Suman Sen & Vivek Modi
Writer: Suman Sen
Cinematographer: Xohaer Musavvir
Editor: Olivier Jahan
Composer: Mayukh Mainak
Production Company: Fickle Formula Private Limited
Financing: Self-financed
Awards: ‘Best Short of the Festival’ Raindance Film Festival
The Official Trailer for The Silent Echo
Watch The Trailer for The Silent Echo directed by Suman Sen
A Short Biography of Suman Sen
Suman Sen is a writer, director, and producer. Suman Sen has directed and produced 5 films and written scripts for them. He is has made Abayob: Face the Devil Inside (2020), Accident (2020), Bandhu: The Bond Beyond Communities (2022). He is production for Mithu (2023) and Astral (2023).
The Suman Sen Interview
indieactivity: What is your film about?
Suman Sen (SS): The Silent Echo is an innocent story about unfulfilled dreams, underlying emotions, and unspoken despair. It is about the way we see the world and the way nature sees us. It is about the over burdening and irrelevant distinction we make on ourselves without even realizing how insignificant we are.
Tell us about the festival run, marketing and sales?
Suman Sen (SS): Incidentally we had two parallel festival selections across the world, one in the US and one in the UK. They selected our film at the beginning of our festival journey. There was no world premier as such. We won the ‘Best short of the festival’ in the Raindance Film Festival in the UK and since then it has been travelling across the world. Here’s the list:
- Raindance Film Festival (Winner ‘Best short of the festival’), UK
- Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, Switzerland
- Hollyshorts Film Festival, US
- Tokyo International Short Film Festival, Japan
- Regard Festival International Du court metrage au Saguenay, Quebec, Canada
- Tampere International Film Festival, Finland (Competition)
- New York International Children’s Film Festival (Nominated ‘Best live action short’), US
- New York Indian Film Festival, US
- Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia, Japan (Competition)
- Sneakers Film Festival, Poland
- Busan Internation Kids and Youth, S Korea
- IFFSA, Toronto, Canada
- Postira Seaside Film Festival, Croatia
- Festival Tous Courts, France
- Svaneti International Film Festival, Georgia
- Aegean Film Festival, Greece
- Indian Film Festival of Melbourne, Australia
- Cinekid Film Festival, Holland
- Sharjah International Film Festival For Children & Youth (SIFF), UAE
- Sedicicorto Forlì International Film Festival, Italy
- Rhode Island International Film Festival, US
- Bengaluru International Short Film Festival, India (Second runner-up)
- Kaohsiung Film Festival, Taiwan
Give the full Official Synopsis for your film?
Suman Sen (SS): It is a story about four indigenous kids, from a remote mountain village in the Himalayas, who spend their days in an abandoned bus on a ridge, playing music. When a band competition is organized in a neighboring town, they gather the money and courage to be a part of it.
Development & Financing?
Suman Sen (SS): I have developed the original idea to a screenplay and shared it with my producers around late 2019. We started hatching it out since then. The idea was not to do something pretentious and preachy. One of my producers Bijon started cowriting it with me. We had our final draft ready in a few weeks or so.
This is a classic example of self-financed, internationally co-produced film. All my producers including Dominique, Ram, Bijon and Arif and Vivek have pitched in to make the film happen. I am immensely grateful to a lot of people who never charged a single penny for the film including my cinematographer, editor, music composer, lyricist, colorist.
Ram is an Emmy award winning producer based in Nepal, who also produced the film. This film wouldn’t have been possible without his involvement and participation. Since we wanted to make the film happen within a timeline, we never went to any film market or applied for any funds. We subsidized all our fees and just went with the flow to make it happen, everything else just fell into place.
Production?
Suman Sen (SS): The production of the film was really a humbling experience for me. From my producers to the cast and the crew — everyone was trying to make my dream come true, which was overwhelming. A story that I conceived in the confines of my room, to see it getting a life – it felt magical. We shot the film in the most extreme part of North-Western Nepal, close to Tibet border, in a language unknown to me. I was in the lap of the beautiful yet unforgiving Himalayan ranges where the terrain and weather are equally challenging.
We cast children from Lo Manthang areas of upper Mustang, the forbidden land – an area that has had a similar past as the setting of the film. The song performed by the children in the film is meant to bring forth their story, the collective stories of the people in such conflicted areas. The music was recorded in Darjeeling in India and sung by children from Nepal. For the film, I travelled from across the Himalayan range for a month. I am fortunate to have collaborators from across the globe.
Friends and collaborators from Bangladesh, Paris, Nepal, Sweden, Lebanon, and India have come together to make this film happen. The post primarily happened in Paris and the Sound Design and Mix happened in Lebanon. This is undoubtedly the highest point of my life so far and it was like a film training. It was really like a celebration of life through stories. We finished the principal photography of the film, right before the pandemic, around February 2020.
Festival Preparation & Strategy?
Suman Sen (SS): Honestly there was never any specific strategy as such. Some of the festivals which we thought would be ideal and appropriate for our kind of film have worked out. Some of the festivals invited us because they thought this film resonates with their programming language. We always had in our mind, irrespective of whatever festival journey the film gets, it should have its own destined life, which cannot be designed.
The Release?
SS: We haven’t had any official release yet. We are still showing it across festivals.
Advice from the Filmmaker?
SS: The only advice I can give is ‘Don’t listen to any advice, always remember you are not doing yourself a favour or not to anyone else either. Convince yourself first and then go for it, do not try to convince others ever while making your film’.
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