Monday, April 29th, 2013
Official Selection 2013
Counting Happiness is the story of a five-year-old boy, Hasan, who lives alone on the streets of Delhi selling clockwork chicken. Driven by a firm belief that some mysterious secret lies hidden and awaiting discovery, he playfully seeks it out and finally finds it in the sequence of five – the number of the letters in his name.
Hasan’s faith in the attainability of happiness presents him with a gift: the key to one of life’s greatest secrets. And the secret is, in the words of ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, that “Happiness depends upon ourselves”.
Director: Venetia Evripiotou
Producer:
Writer: Venetia Evripiotou
Key cast and other credits:
Hasan – Satyam Singh
The Barber – Shakir Adeel
Director’s Statement
‘Counting Happiness is much more than a character-driven drama or a children’s adventure story.
It is a real life portrayal of millions of beautiful children who live on the streets, and of their dreams as they explore life. More than anything else, it is an ode to the countless children who preserve happiness in their hearts and minds, even during their most strenuous struggles in a third world country.
These children can become a source of inspiration for people around the world. They deserve our admiration and our help to explore their potential, as in their innocent and full of faith and hope eyes we are offered a unique opportunity to rediscover the true meaning of our existence and fulfill our own potential as human beings.
After several months in India, the greatest certainty I have is that my encounter with this country’s adorable children has been a rare and precious experience that I will cherish all my life.’
Venetia Evripiotou
Director’s Bio
Venetia Evripiotou is a visual artist with an international perspective. Born in Athens, Greece, she has travelled extensively in Europe, America and Asia in search of inspiration. In the meantime, she has forged a remarkable career in the advertising sector working mainly in Athens as a creative director for projects of major international brands, such as Nestle, 3M, Diageo and Coca Cola.
Owner and founder of Dassera Art Space, one of Athens’ most avant-garde experimental art venues established in 2008 with a mission to support and promote the work of contemporary Greek and foreign artists to the Greek public, she was drawn by video art in 2006 and has since created several video art work and installation projects. Among her most significant works were Lolly People, an allegorical video art project about virtuous people who succumb to the sweet sin, and The Window that was screened at both the 2009 Athens International Video Art Festival and the 2009 Thessaloniki International Film Festival. In 2011, Dassera Art Space established a communication link with India, which resulted in an interstate, Greek-Indian co-production of Venetia Evripiotou’s debut short film, Counting Happines5. Her next short film Desire Fall is already in the post-production stage and is expected to be released in less than a year. Venetia Evripiotou graduated in Fine Arts at the Hodozestvena Academia, and continued her studies in the Art Institute of Southern California, USA.
http://www.countinghappiness.com
Posted in: Official Selection, 2013 Films In Detail