MUMBAI: Deepa Mehta’s Water has been included in the contemporary international film series course for the spring semester at Missouri Universsity.

The seven film series will be screened in DVD format at the Cornell auditorium on the Missouri Southern State University campus, Joplin.

Water has been categorised as an Indian film, with a running time of 117 minutes and will be screened on 16 February 2007. Sources close to the production house confirm that the institute had earlier aired Deepa Mehta’s Fire and Earth too. Water is the third of the series, “a sensitive, disturbing and extremely controversial story of an Indian girl married and widowed at the age of eight, who is sent to live in a home where other Indians widows live in penitence.”

However, producer Ravi Chopra, who is distributing the film in India, is not aware of the development. Says Chopra, “I am happy that the film is being released in India. We are releasing the film in 15 to 20 cities and towns at select theatres in March.”

At Missouri, the films will be screened every Friday evening till May. The series begins from 2 February with Merry Christmas (the original French title is Joyeux Noel, nominated for an Academy Award for best foreign film in 2005). The film recreates the real-life story of Scottish, French and German troops in the trenches of World War I who spontaneously declared a truce and came together to celebrate Christmas.