South Asia packs a punch at Berlinale

Illustration/Uday Mohite

India and South Asia have a solid presence at this year's 74th Berlin International Film Festival, with an amazing 19 (nineteen!) films and Berlinale Talents (BT). The Berlinale Talents is a mentoring and networking programme for relatively young filmmakers. There are nine films and nine BTs selected; and filmmaker Anam Abbas (Pakistan/Canada) has been on the BT application selection jury for Doc Station for 2024.

The nine South Asian films selected at Berlin - including seven Indian films - are Min Bahadur Bham's Shambhala, from Nepal, in the Competition section. It is a historic milestone for South Asian cinema to have a film from Nepal in the Berlinale Competition, where even India doesn't have a film in Competition, and hasn't had one since Buddhadeb Dasgupta's Charachar (The Shelter of Wings, 1994), literally 30 years ago. Hopefully, this selection will make arrogant, self-absorbed Indian filmmakers and ignorant film viewers realise there is so much world class talent in our smaller South Asian neighbours; sometimes they're even better than us.

Raam Reddy's The Fable is in the prestigious Encounters section. Siddartha Jatla's In the Belly of a Tiger and PS Vinoth Raj's Kottukkaali (The Adamant Girl) are both in the Forum section. There are five shorts selected, of which two are in the Forum Expanded section, that explores the space between cinema and the other arts: Gavati Wad's O Seeker and Utkarsh's Remote Occlusions. There are three more shorts in the Generation section - Nishi Dugar's Anaar Daana (Sour Candy) in the Generation K Plus section for children and adults; Subarna Dash's The Girl who lived in the Loo, an animation short in the Generation 14 plus; and Saurav Ghimire's Songs of Love and Hate, Nepal, also in Generation 14 plus (for young and older adults).

Min Bahadur Bham's absolutely stunning Shambhala in Competition, starring Thinley Lhamo and Sonam Topden, is in Tibetan and Nepali, and set in the majestic Himalayas. It is about Pema, a woman who is married, according to tradition, to three brothers. When she gets pregnant, and neighbours gossip that she's having an extra-marital affair, she travels across the Himalayas to convince her travelling husband of her innocence. But her journey turns into a larger, spiritual, liberating quest. It is an international co-production between Nepal, France, Norway, Hong Kong, China, Turkey, Taiwan, USA and Qatar!

Raam Reddy's The Fable, starring Manoj Bajpayee, Priyanka Bose and Tillotama Shome, is a mystery-drama set around a series of fires in and around a Himalayan orchard estate. Siddartha Jatla's In the Belly of a Tiger is about an old man, in debt, who decides to let himself be killed by a tiger, so his family can live off the government compensation. In PS Vinoth Raj's Kottukkaali (Tamil), featuring Tamil star Soori Muthuchamy and gorgeous Malayalam star Anna Ben, the family of a man who is determined to marry a woman he loves - and realises that she loves another, low caste man - use violence and exorcism to "fix" her to love the "right guy" instead.

The nine Indian and South Asian Berlinale Talents are, from India, Tushar Prakash, Director (also writer, editor), who has an impressive body of work, including as editor of the feted Estonian documentary Smoke Sauna Sisterhood; "KT" (Karan Tejpal), Director, Screenwriter, Stolen, that was at the Venice Film Festival 2023; and Mausam A, Production Designer (Nasir, Fire in the Mountains, Sundance). Nepal comes all guns blazing, with five Talents. There's Rajan Kathet (Director, Screenwriter, No Winter Holidays, Bare Trees in the Mist, Serdhak); Fidel Devkota, Director, Producer, Germany (The Red Suitcase, Venice Film Festival, 2023), Uttam Neupane, Sound Designer (Bibhusan Basnet and Pooja Gurung's Dadyaa-The Woodpeckers of Rotha, Venice, Sundance, TIFF Toronto), Gaumaya G (Actor, Screenwriter; Gaumaya Gurung acted in Kabaddi 4: The Final Match, Fulbari and in Deepak Rauniyar's upcoming Rajagunj-The Sky is Mine); Ramu (Ramlal Khadka), Production Designer (Wheels on the Bus). From Bangladesh, there's Oronnok Prithibi, Sound Designer (6-Crowd, A New Era, Shabnam). I look forward to rich collaborations between the South Asian talent at the Berlinale.

Meenakshi Shedde is India and South Asia Delegate to the Berlin International Film Festival, National Award-winning critic, curator to festivals worldwide and journalist.
Reach her at meenakshi.shedde@mid-day.com