Sundance Film Festival 2018: Documentary based on Kailash Satyarthi wins top honour

The documentary film Kailash, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, has won the US Grand Jury Prize at the festival. The Derek Doneen-directed documentary is based on Nobel Peace Prize-winning activist Kailash Satyarthi. [caption id=“attachment_4325027” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Poster of Kailash. Image from Twitter/@MeenakshiShedde[/caption] Satyarthi’s crusade against child slavery has helped rescue thousands of children. He also heads the organisation Bachpan Bachao Aandolan in India, according to a Mumbai Mirror report. The 92-minute film, which chronicles Satyarthi’s journey and efforts against child trafficking and child labour, had its world premier at the prestigious festival  in the US Documentary Competition category. This is director’s feature debut, who had met Satyarthi while working closely with Oscar-winning documentarian Davis Guggenheim on the Malala Yousafzai film He Named Me Malala. Satyarthi had shared his Nobel honour with Yousafzai in 2014. “I was shocked to read about Kailash and his work because I didn’t know anything about it. I didn’t know the pervasiveness of this issue and immediately was [struck] by how inspiring he is, the movement he’s built on a global level,” said Doneen while speaking with Deadline. According to the report, Satyarthi spoke about the film’s potential in bringing child slavery to the global discourse, “People must understand that slavery has not yet been abolished, and there are people—very ordinary people—who are fighting to end slavery, and especially child slavery and child labor,” said the activist. The film shows the activist and his New Delhi-based organisation Bachpan Bachao Andolan lead a raid against a factory, which exploits children. The rescued children are traumatised to the extent that they don’t even realise they have been rescued. Satyarthi manages to break through a little boy named Karim who starts smiling through his tears. Towards the end, Satyarthi speaks about his belief in actual change despite the odds as Karim and another rescued boy, Sanjeet, are reunited with their families and start school.