Indian Films @ Berlinale

By Pickle  February 12, 2024

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Encounters

The Fable

Director: Raam Reddy
Book: Raam Reddy
Producers: Pratap Reddy, Sunmin Park
Executive Producer: Ethan Park
Co-producer: Ganesh Shetty
Associate Producer: Juhi Agarwal

Starring: Manoj Bajpayee, Priyanka Bose, Deepak Dobriyal, Tillotama Shome, Hiral Sidhu
India / USA 2024 Hindi, English

World Sales: Maxmedia

Jepark@maxmedia.org

One day, Dev discovers individual burnt trees in his orchard in the Indian Himalayas. Despite all efforts, larger and larger fires break out, eventually forcing Dev to realize the truth about himself and his family.

Spring 1989. High up in the Indian Himalayas, where birds fly low to avoid getting lost in the clouds, Dev owns a sprawling estate with several orchards. The friendly and balanced man lives in a colonial-style house with his family. He spends a large part of his time building human-sized wings, which he puts on in the morning hours to take short sightseeing flights over the plantations. One day, while walking across the grounds, he discovers a single burnt apple tree. A short time later there were already several. Dev and his foreman monitor the workers on the plantations, which causes unrest. A group of nomads come under suspicion and a corrupt police officer gets involved, while a group of loyal men stand guard outside the property at night. Despite all measures, a large fire breaks out a week later and engulfs an entire mountainside full of trees. In his search for the culprit, Dev also resorts to armed violence. The slow burning of the plantations forces him to face the truth about himself and his family.

Forum

In the Belly of a Tiger

Director: Siddartha Jatla
Book: Amanda Mooney, Siddartha Jatla
Producers: Sarada Uma, Fang Li, Bhavana Goparaju
Co-producers: Nishtha Satyam, Heliang Ma, Axel Hadiningrat, Giovaanni Rahmadeva, Ye Sun, Patrick Mao Huang

Starring: Lawrence Francis, Poonam Tiwari, Sorabh Jaiswar, Jyoti, Sonali
World sales: Flash Forward Entertainment

info@ffe.com.tw

An older couple. Bhagole and Prabhata are indebted farmers. He decides to let a tiger kill him to save the family. The Last Night: a surreal love story. The film: mythological, expressionistic and deeply sad.

Forum

Kottukkaali (The Adamant Girl)

Director: Vinothraj PS
Producers: Sivakarthikeyan D, Kalai Arasu P
Executive Producer: Banu Priya
Production: Sivakarthikeyan Productions LLP

Starring: Soori Muthuchamy, Anna Ben
India 2024, Tamil, Subtitles: English

Meena remains silent, stubborn. She loves a man from a lower caste. The family thinks she is possessed and the magic is driven out of her. The day dawns, a road movie begins, casually telling of religious fervor and crazy misogyny.

Forum Expanded

O Seeker

Director: Gavati Wad
Producer: Gavati Wad

Starring: Varun Sahni, Rajashree Sawant Wad, Bhavik Shah, Utkarsh, Gavati Wad
USA / India 2024, Hindi, English

O Seeker explores science, politics, spirituality and superstition in postpandemic India. The 16mm film creates a puzzle of open questions from conversations about grief, loss and absurd events – whether real or imagined.

Forum Expanded

Remote Occlusions

Director: Utkarsh
India / USA 2024
Without dialogue

utkarsh@alum.calarts.edu

No flickering or noise, no artifacts. No fog, clouds or trees. No objects in the scan area that are similar to the target object. No objects that can cause a continuous change to the image. Hit rate: 95 percent.

Generation Short Films

Anaar danaa (Sour Candy)

Director: Nishi Dugar
Producer: Nishi Dugar
Co-producers: Kush Patel, Anirudh Chordia

Starring: Veda Agrawal, Manav Hinduja, Lavya Jain, Manjari Saxena, Suryakanta Bothra
India 2024, Hindi

films.nishidugar@gmail.com

Guddal, a spirited five-year-old, loves eating Anaar Daana – sour sweets. She gets into a lot of mischief with her brother Laddoo. One day, a sad event shakes up their idyllic world.

Generation Short Films

The Girl Who Lived in the Loo

Director: Subarna Dash
Producer: Subarna Dash
Production: Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute

Starring: Sneha Das, Pratyusha Mitra
India 2024, English, Bengali

d.subarnaa@gmail.com

A ten-year-old girl has found her refuge: the toilet. It is quiet and safe in this quiet place, but also a bit lonely. She slowly tries to find a way to deal with her obsession and find her way in life.