Noor, a Pakistani short film produced by SeePrime won the Best Health Film award in the January online edition of the Cannes World Film Festival. The short film that tackles the stigma around weak eyesight, is directed by Umer Adil, written by Farah Usman and features Sarwat Gilani, Omair Rana, Tanisha Shameem and Mizna Waqas.
On Wednesday, Gilani took to Instagram to share the news in a post which she captioned, “We won!” tagging her whole team. The Cannes World Film Festival announced winners for its January online edition on Monday, in a relatively new development in which the jury acknowledges films made under a variety of genres.
In another Instagram post she wrote, “Noor came with a definitive purpose of highlighting a pertinent social issue. I am so happy that our efforts are being recognized for spreading that awareness, spreading that light.”
In an exclusive conversation to Arab News, Umer Adil shared his thought process about his short film. “It [Noor] highlights the impact on kids of not wearing glasses and how that pressure affects their personalities,” he explained. “It’s a very cute story told through the lens of a young girl, Noor. She is a very good student but she faces some issues when her eyesight starts to weaken. Basically, it [Noor] is about the stigma attached to glasses that a person isn’t supposed to wear one or else they would look older,” added Adil.
Another Pakistani short film, Pehchaan, written, directed and produced by Mohammad Ahsan also made it to the nominations of the January Edition at the Cannes World Film Festival but the film did not make it to the winners’ list.
