Canadian Premiere
Loosely inspired by people and events from director Aditya Vikram Sengupta’s life, the film follows an interconnected web of characters and the architecture of their lives. An agoraphobic recluse finds shelter in the derelict theatre inherited from his father, refusing the moneyed siren call of real estate developers and an ambitious young man finds a job in a chit fund without realizing the shady undercurrents of the financial world he’s in. At the centre is Ela, a TV host who strikes out for a new life in the wake of her daughter’s death and a floundering marriage. The Calcutta she navigates is, like herself, haunted by its past and unsure of its future.
Aditya Vikram Sengupta, working alongside Turkish cinematographer Gökhan Tiryaki (Winter Sleep) finds a lyrical atmosphere, exploring the depths and vagaries of the human condition against the backdrop of a crumbling, nostalgia-mired city in the midst of urban development and cultural upheaval.
Community Partner
Sreelekha Mitra, Satrajit Sarkar, Arindam Ghosh, Shayak Roy, Bratya Basu, Anirban Chakrabarti
India/France/Norway
2021
In Bengali with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The Other Side of Hope
Khaled, a Syrian (Sherwan Haji), washes up on Finland's glum shores and becomes an unlikely friend to a middle-aged Finnish shirt salesman (Sakari Kuosmanen) in the midst of remaking his life. Compassionate and wryly funny by turns.
Silent Friend
In this entrancing reverie from On Body and Soul director Ildikó Enyedi, we are invited to contemplate several human specimens from the vantage point of a mighty Ginkgo biloba tree on the grounds of a German university.
The Art of Adventure
The unbelievable adventure story of how painter Robert Bateman and ecologist Bristol Foster drove a Land Rover from Africa to Australia in 1957, developing a love of nature to last a lifetime. An inspirational love letter to the adventure of life itself.
Miles Davis 100! Elevator to the Gallows + Julian Borkowski
24-year-old Louis Malle came out of the gate with this cool noir about a perfect murder that goes horribly wrong. A man (Maurice Ronet) kills his boss in his office, only to get stuck in the lift... Meanwhile his lover (Jeanne Moreau) is going frantic.
Credits
Executive Producer
Aditya Vikram Sengupta, Jonaki Bhattacharya
Producer
Priyanka Agarwal, Anshulika Dubey, Shashwat Singh, Vikram Mohinta
Screenwriter
Aditya Vikram Sengupta
Cinematography
Gökhan Tiryaki
Editor
Aditya Vikram Sengupta
Production Design
Jonaki Bhattacharya
Original Music
Minco Eggersman
Director
Aditya Vikram Sengupta
Aditya Vikram Sengupta’s debut film Labour of Love (2014) premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the Fedeora Award for Best Director of a Debut Film. His second feature Jonaki (2018) premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. It went on to receive the Silver Gateway Award and the Best Film on Gender Equality at the Mumbai Film Festival. Sengupta’s next film Once Upon a Time in Calcutta (2021) was the first Bengali language feature to be a part of Cannes Cinéfondation’s L’Atelier at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016.
Filmography: Labour of Love (2014); Jonaki (2018)