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
Mistura
This foodie film from Peru tells the story of a newly single socialite reinventing herself — and the local cuisine — after her husband has left her for a younger woman. Along the way, she finds support from unexpected places...
Departures
Two lads meet at an airport gate and begin monthly trips to Amsterdam together. Their chemistry is off the charts, but it's Jake who's calls the shots while Benji is the one who's emotionally invested. Comparisons to Pillion and Trainspotting are on mark.
Time and Water
Sara Dosa (Fire of Love) turns her attentions from volcanoes to glaciers in this singular, personal collaboration with the Icelandic writer Andri Snær Magnason, who ruminates on the loss of ties to family and to landscape.
The Richest Woman in the World
Isabelle Huppert plays cosmetics CEO Marianne in this teasingly ambivalent satire inspired by the Bettancourt Affair, when L'Oreal heir Francoise Bettancourt scandalized France by frittering away her fortune on a notorious celebrity photographer.
Le rêve américain
This French crowdpleaser about a couple of nobodies who set themselves up as basketball player agents hits all the right story beats. You wouldn't believe it except that it happens to be true.
Image: © Mika Cotellon
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)