(Image source from: www.independent.co.uk)

An Indian-set documentary film Period. End of Sentence. has won the Best Documentary Short Subject award at the Oscars 2019. The movie, set in Uttar Pradesh’s Hapur, is based on taboos revolving around menstruation.

Directed by an Iranian American filmmaker Rayka Zehtabchi and Indian Guneet Monga being executive producer, the movie was a part of The Pad Project, initiated by Oakwood School students and their teacher Melissa Berton in Los Angeles.

“I'm not crying because I'm on my period or anything. I can't believe a film on menstruation won an Oscar”, said the award-winning director during her acceptance speech. She also gave a nod to Guneet Monga, who has earlier backed Bollywood movies like The Lunchbox and Masaan.

“Guneet Monga - know that you have been empowering women all over the world fight for menstrual equality”, she further said. Melissa dedicated the award win to her school and also mentioned that people in India wanted to make a human rights difference and so did her students in LA, and that’s how the project was conceived.

“I share this award with the Feminist Majority Foundation, the entire team and cast. I share this with the teachers and students around the worlds - a period should end a sentence, not a girl's education”, she said as per a PTI report.

The docu-feature is set in a rural area just outside the Indian capital, where women fight against the profoundly rooted stigma of menstruation and lead a quiet revolution.

"WE WON!!! To every girl on this earth... know that you are a goddess... if heavens are listening... look MA we put @sikhya on the map," Monga took to Twitter after the victory.

WE WON!!! To every girl on this earth... know that you are a goddess... if heavens are listening... look MA we put @sikhya on the map

— Guneet Monga (@guneetm) February 25, 2019

Other documentary shorts that were nominated in the category were Black Sheep, End Game, Lifeboat and A Night at the Garden.

-Sowmya Sangam