Feral

By Pickle November 24, 2024

India, USA | English, Kinnauri | Drama, Horror, Thriller

Synopsis

1950s India, Himalayas.

A sadomasochist English MADAME (70) has raised two part-tribal sisters to be her domestic servants on a withering colonial estate. Trained in all manners of British servitude, the obedient CECILIA (35) and the bitter VERENA (37) – hail from the Kinnauri tribe, a connection they have long forgotten. And ever so often, Madame holds these soirees where she parades the sisters around, as the finest of her accomplishments. But the arrival of Madame’s latest lover, ZEE (30) – a singer and a shaman scholar – and his search for an ancient forest song begins to change the alchemy of the estate. His songs cast a spell on the sisters, awakening something ancient inside them, causing them to slowly take over the house by enacting Master-Slave role-playing games. Transgressions that result in carnage/bloodshed at the estate. Emerging from this, as the sole survivor, is Cecilia. A wild feral creature covered in mud and blood – and unleashing from within her is that ancient forest song that’s lived inside her all along.

Nihaarika Negi
Director & Producer
nihaarika.negi@gmail.com

Director(s) Statement

As a part-Indigenous artist from India – a country that even after 77 years of independence is still somehow nursing a colonial hangover – I was raised to negate my ‘savage’ tribal culture for the ‘civilized’ English one. And I’ve often wondered about how I can return to the wisdom of my ancestors?

With FERAL, an elevated horror, I seek to explore how two part-tribal maids navigate this colonial trauma as it ruptures through their bodies – causing them to dismantle the old structures and embrace their inner monsters as a way of reclaiming their lost power.

Budget
USD 750, 000

Financing in place
USD 200, 000

Production Company
Autotelic Pictures

Looking for
Co-Producers, Financers, Post Production Partners, Sales/Sales Agents, Distribution Partners, Film Lab/Workshop/Fund, Film Festivals/Programmers