Screen 360 co-presents
UNNI by Murali Nair

Set against the lush backdrop of Kerala, Murali Nair charts the bittersweet coming-of-age journey of four mischievous young friends from different social classes, in this first installment of the trilogy Life is All about Friends. Nair sensitively sketches out the starkly different social milieu of each of the children - from Unni's rigid upper-caste all-woman household, to his friend Gopi's broken home and alcoholic father. Led by troublemaker Gopi, Unni gets up to all kinds of mischief at school, along with Ramu and Raju, and the boys briefly fall out. But in spite of all their differences, the curiosities of adolescence holds these four friends together in the face of society's arbitrary rules. Nair went back to his childhood School to recruit the young non-professional actors for the film. Award winning filmmaker Murali Nair (1966- ) learned his craft, working as a production manager; with director Pawan Kaul; on the TV serial Chandrakanta; and with Mani Kaul. His first short-film Tragedy of an Indian Farmer won a National award in 1993. His first feature film Maranasimhasanam (1999) won him the prestigious Camera d'Or at the Cannes International Film Festival in 1999, and his subsequent films have all been screened at Cannes. He lives in London and is currently producing television programs for British television. Bay Area Premiere Selected filmography:
Maranasimhasanam ( The Throne of Death ) (1999)
Pattiyude Divasam (A Dog's Day) (2001)
Arimpara ( The Story that Begins at the End ) (2003). Screen 360 recommends this film for ages 9 and up.