In a remote Nepalese village, surrounded by forests where wild elephants roam, Pirati serves as the middle-aged matriarch to a house of Kinnar women. She cares for her adopted family — members of a third-gender community navigating the realities of societal discrimination as well as their own religious vows — even as she longs to leave her life behind and elope with a local drummer. But when one of her Kinnar daughters doesn’t return following a nightly elephant patrol, Pirati’s dreams are cut short. Stymied by an unhelpful police force and facing local resistance, Pirati determines she must investigate the disappearance herself.
Winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes’s Un Certain Regard, Elephants in the Fog is both a thrilling procedural mystery and a tender portrait of an embattled but resilient community. Dense with atmospheric detail and anchored by a luminous lead performance from Puspa Thing Lama, this is a moving, culturally specific depiction of the ties that bind.
Jury Prize: Un Certain Regard, Cannes 2026
Puspa Thing Lama, Sahab Din Miya, Jasmin Bishwokarma, Aliz Ghimire, Joel Gurung, Aashant Sharma
Nepal/Germany/Brazil/
France/Norway
2026
In Nepali with English subtitles
At International Village
At Fifth Ave
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits & Director
Producer
Anup Poudel, Justin Pechberty, Damien Megherbi, Michael Henrichs
Screenwriter
Abinash Bikram Shah
Cinematography
Noé Bach
Editor
Andrew Bird, Paris J. Ludwig
Production Design
Mausam Aggrawal
Original Music
Frédéric Alvarez
Abinash Bikram Shah
Abinash Bikram Shah is a Nepalese writer and director and an alumnus of the Sundance Institute, Berlinale Talents, Global Media Makers — Film Independent, and Locarno Filmmakers Academy. He is a cowriter of The Black Hen (2015) and Shambhala (2024), both Oscar entries for Nepal. After his directorial debut short Tattini (2018) reached international festivals, he became the first Nepali director in an official selection at Cannes with Lori (2022), which received a Jury Special Mention.
Missing VIFF? Check Out What's Playing at the VIFF Centre
American Doctor
One of the most powerful documentaries of the year, this puts us smack in the open wound that is Gaza, filtered through the eyes of three American surgeons (of Palestinian, Jewish and Zoroastrian backgrounds) compelled to do their utmost to alleviate harm.
The History of Concrete
After attending a workshop on pitching saccharine Hallmark movies, John Wilson tries to apply all the same best practices to his documentary about concrete. Frequently absurd and endlessly entertaining detours, asides, and digressions ensue.
La Bola Negra
A big, old-school historical melodrama gets a thrillingly modern, queer makeover from Spanish duo Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, who artfully juggle three gay protagonists across stories set in 1932, 1937, and 2017. Winner: Best Director, Cannes. Screening on 35mm.
A. Rimbaud
Patrick Wang (The Bread Factory) presents the life of French poet Arthur Rimbaud in this staggeringly adventurous and deeply considered movie, a three-hour, one-man show quite unlike anything we have seen before. "Poetic, audacious and singular."
The 39 Steps
In our new film studies series, FRAMEWORK, film scholar Michael van den Bos explores the work of Alfred Hitchcock, across four monochrome masterworks. This week: The 39 Steps (1935), a witty and fast-moving spy thriller from Hitchcock's English period.