image0015Nepali feature film White Sun (Seto Surya) has bagged the Best Film award at the 27th Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) that concluded on Saturday night. The film directed by Deepak Rauniyar impressed the jury as “an exceptional and incisive film,” according to published reports. White Sun, which stars Dayahang Rai and Rabindra Singh Baniya in the lead roles, tells the story of a Nepali community caught in between tradition and progress, against the backdrop of the ten-year long Maoist insurgency. Speaking to the Post last month, Rauniyar shared his inspiration behind the movie, “One thing I did not want to do is make another sad, hopeless film about a bloody war. I was more interested to explore the aftermath of the war. The film takes place around the time of the announcement of the constitution in late 2015, so the title refers to the white sun on our national flag. The dead body at the beginning of the film is a metaphor for the old constitution and the king’s regime, overthrown after the 10-year civil war.” White Sun, which has made a big splash in the international film circuit this year, had garnered critical acclaim at prestigious film festivals including Cannes, Venice International Film Festival and Toronto Film Festival. The movie is Rauniyar’s second directorial. His first movie, Highway, released in 2012 was famous for the theme rooted to Nepal’s socio-economic and political realities. White Sun will premiere in Nepal at the upcoming KIMFF 2016 on December 8. Following its premier, the movie will hit screens across the country.