Eezham Tamil filmmaker’s debut reaches international film festival

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 October 2009, 18:46 GMT]
Vancouver International film Festival’s Canadian Images session this year opens with a Tamil film ‘1999', made by Lenin M. Sivam, an Eezham Tamil of Canada and a software architect by profession. The film, featuring violence-affected Eezham Tamils struggling to adjust their lives in Canada, is the first full-feature production of the largely self-made filmmaker. Sivam, 35, born in Jaffna and migrated to Canada in 1991, earlier produced successful short films in Tamil. His father V M L Sivam was playwright, director and actor in his home country.

Lenin Sivam’s earlier short films Iniyavarka’l (A Few Good People), U’ruthi (Strength) and Pakkaththiveedu (The Next Door) also touches the topic of challenges faced by the Tamil community in Toronto.

All the 50 members of the production team were volunteers and 1999 was the first film for most of the 20 actors, Lenin said, adding that it was probably the one made on the lowest budget in the category.






External Links:

1999Movie:

The cast

Chronology: