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Title: MOUTH OF HELL

Reference number: 13877

Date: 2015

Director: d. Samir Mehanovic

Sponsor: Creative Scotland

Production company: Paradiso Films

Sound: sound

Colour: col

Fiction: fiction

Running time: 15.00 mins

Description: Mouth of Hell, the short tells the story of Anant, an 8 year old boy who scrapes a living picking coal and selling it at the local markets to try and feed himself and his sick mother. Life changing events unfold as Anant stumbles unexpectedly upon a wallet containing 5000 rupees. [Synopsis taken from Creative Scotland, https://www.creativescotland.com/what-we-do/latest-news/archive/2017/01/scottish-short-nominated-for-bafta, last accessed 12/10/21]

Catalogued from secondary sources including the BFI and Creative Scotland.

See also ref. 13900 for an extended version titled 'Anant'.

[Mouth of Hell was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Short Film.

The film focuses on the humanitarian and ecological disaster in Jharia. Jharia is India’s largest and most productive open-cast coal mines and also home to over 700,000 who survive by picking coal in unstable and dangerous conditions. One of the most dangerous places on earth, the locals suffer respiratory problems and live in houses precariously built on unstable ground where fires rage underground and smoke and dangerous fumes belch from cracks in the earth.]

Credits: © Paradiso Films & Creative Scotland

Sons Not Dogs and Creative Scotland present

Written by Samir Mehanovic and Bart Gavigan

Produced by Ailie Smith, Michael Wilson and Mark Evans

[Cast
Anant Suraj Mondal
Sushila Ramanjit Kaur
Santosh Taranjit Kaur
Kumar Omar Farooque
Binati Riya Kumari
Roma Soumya Bala
doctor Devjit Sil
old man at market S.M. Menhdi Imam
nurse Balaka Chattopadhyay
Hara Amit Sinha
Hindu priest Sanjeev Kumar Ghosh
food seller Kundan Singh
Nirgun singer Rakesh Tripathi
Charu Madan Mohan Prasad

Directed by Samir Mehanovic
Chief Assistant Director Prem Modi
Assistant Director Rakesh Tripathi

Supported by National Lottery through Creative Scotland
Presents Sons Not Dogs
Presents Creative Scotland
Produced by Ailie Smith
Produced by Michael Wilson
Produced by Mark Evans
Line Producer Devjit Sil
Production Executive Ross McKenzie
Unit Production Manager Sandeep Rudra
Assistant to Unit Production Manager Pradip Saha
Indian Fixer Devjit Sil
Dhanbad Fixer 'The Boss of Dhanbad' Kundan Singh
Production Co-ordinator Hannah Milton
Production Accountant Jenny Allenby
Spot Boy Sanjib Dey]