OIFFA

Footprints On Water
2023-06-13 17:00 (America/Toronto) | The Landmark Cinemas, 801 Kanata Ave., Kanata, Ontario, K2T 1E7, Canada
OPENING FILM
CANADIAN PREMIERE & FEATURE FILM DEBUT

Director: Nathalia Syam
United Kingdom | 2023 | 108 min | drama | English

Don’t miss your chance to meet director Nathalia Syam and the film’s star, Adil Hussain! They will both be in attendance on Opening Night.
A reception will take place at 5 pm, and the screening will start at 6 pm.
TICKETS >>>

Away from the glitz and glam of Birmingham resides a community of illegal immigrants who are always in hiding, leaving no proof of their existence, not even their footprints. Among them is Raghu, a small business owner who fled India after being mired in a financial scam, amassing his meagre wages in the hopes of paying back his debt and returning home with dignity. Six years on, Raghu now works for a fraudulent solicitor who makes money creating fake passports and visa appeals, and who decides to reward his employee’s loyalty by finding a wealthy British groom for his daughter Meera. Raghu believes he has finally struck gold, but after a heated argument, Meera storms out of their home, prompting her father to set out on a quest to find her, all by himself, without coming under the police radar. This quest will reveal a secret side of his daughter’s life and make him realize that his pursuit of materialistic riches has jeopardized his relationship with the people that matter the most to him. Now, his only priority is to see Meera safe again. But is he too late?

NATALIA SYAM is a London-based filmmaker who emigrated from Kollam, Kerala, when she was 10. After completing her degree in Film Studies, she worked as an assistant director for the British and South Indian film industries, alternatively. As a seasoned film practitioner, Nathalia now leads the BFI Film Academy for Resource Productions at Pinewood Studios and has curated and delivered several filmmaking masterclasses. She is the director of two short films, Thaara (2016) and Lehenga (2018), the latter of which was nominated for the Best of British award at the BAFTA-qualifying Iris Prize Award in Cardiff. Footprints on Water is her feature film debut. It has already secured the Best Debut Film award at the 2022 New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) as well as the Best Director (Celebrating Our Stories theme) and Best Actor awards at the 2023 UK Asian Film Festival (UKAFF). “Being an immigrant myself,” says Syam during an interview with Asian Culture Vulture, “having watched Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham… and all these films, I thought it was going to be sports cars, luxury houses, but it wasn’t the case. And that was a bit of a culture shock for me. For me, it’s very important that you represent reality to the truest form as possible and I feel it’s important you don’t exaggerate any scenes. You just show it as it is. And if that’s hard-hitting, then so be it.”
scr.: Neetha Syam | cin.: Azhagappan | ed.: Suresh Pai | art dir.: Christine Urquhart | snd: Resul Pookutty | mus.: Tuomas Kantelinen | cast: Adil Hussain, Nimisha Sajayan, Lenaa Kumar, Antonio Aakeel, Danny Sura | prod.: The Production Head Quarters Ltd UK — Mohaan Nadaar
Free parking during the event.

Opening Reception: 5 pm | Screening: 6 pm
$40 per ticket, plus H.S.T. ($5.20) & service fees.

The Resonance (Anunaad)
2023-06-14 12:00 | The Landmark Cinemas, 801 Kanata Ave., Kanata, Ontario, K2T 1E7, Canada
OTTAWA PREMIERE

Director: Reema Borah
India | 2021 | 98 min | drama | Assamese, with English subtitles
TICKETS >>>

The Resonance (Anunaad) focuses on the soul-tearing topic of bridal slavery occurring in some parts of India. The film opens in a sleepy rural area surrounded by tea gardens where girls dream of migrating to other parts of the country to escape the poverty and hopelessness in which their families are plunged. Lured by a nexus of brokers and human traffickers, they begin a journey from the lush green fields of Assam to the dry, foggy winter of Haryana, in Northern India, where they risk being trafficked as purchased brides and face a life of constant humiliation and violence at the hands of their husbands and their families.

The recipient of a Master’s degree in Theatre and a Postgraduate degree in Film Direction from the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune, REEMA BORAH is a well-read actress, writer, director, and producer. The shorts she directed as part of her academic career were showcased in many festivals around the world, including the Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival and Camerimage. Her films have won several awards, including a National Film Award in 2009 and a Special Mention from the Indian Documentary Producers’ Association (IDPA) in 2011. Bokul, her debut feature, premiered at the Mumbai Film Festival in 2015 and went on to win five Assam State Film Awards. Her second feature, Noi, was another festival darling. The Resonance (Anunaad) is her third feature.
scr.: Reema Borah | cin.: Siddharth Mitragotri, Sandeep Patil | ed.: Rantu Chetia | snd: Boby John | cast: Urmila Mahanta, Vansh Bharadwaj, Udayan Duarah, Dorothy Bharadwaj, Monuj Borkotoky | prod.: Reema Borah

Director: Sujatha Rajashekar
India | 2022 | 17 min | drama | Hindi, with English subtitles
TICKETS >>>

Ankahi Baatein tells the story of a lonely housewife who finds solace in the company of a doll that ends up on her doorstep after a failed delivery attempt at her neighbour’s apartment. With time, she develops a deep, life-affirming bond with the doll. Initially ashamed of it and what people might think, she eventually comes around after hearing the story of Meerabai and the icon of Lord Krishna, realizing that, sometimes, a relationship only makes sense for the two people in it.

SUJATHA RAJASHEKAR is a passionate storyteller who stepped into the film world at the age of 55, enticed by the art of weaving stories from original concepts and transforming them into immersive experiences through the eye of the lens. Her short film Pratima (co-directed by sound designer Swapnil Sharma) was named Children’s Film of the Month by the Tagore International Film Festival in early 2023. Ankahi Baatein also won an award at Tagore, and was screened at the Pune Short Film Festival, the Bengal International Short Film Festival and the Lift-Off Sessions 2023 @Pinewod Studios.
scr.: Sujatha Rajashekar | cin.: Vinod Patil | ed.: Manas Sharma | cost.: Sujatha Rajashekar | art dir.: Sujatha Rajashekar | snd: Swapnil Sharma | mus.: Sidhant Mathur | cast: Smita Dwivedi, Abhikalp Gagdekar, Amrandra Srivastava, Ananta Rooprai | prod.: Sujatha Rajashekar
Free parking during the screening.
$15 per ticket, plus H.S.T. ($1.95) & service fees.

The Bird of Passage (Karmanye)
2023-06-14 13:00 | The Landmark Cinemas, 801 Kanata Ave., Kanata, Ontario, K2T 1E7, Canada
WORLD PREMIERE & FEATURE FILM DEBUT

Director: Harsh Chauhan
India | 2023 | 97 min | drama | Hindi, with English subtitles
TICKETS >>>

The Bird of Passage (Karmanye) tells of a man’s redemptive journey through the complex matrix of life, music and mania. Set in the holy city of Varanasi, where one is perpetually surrounded by deities and rituals, and remaining virtuous is as pertinent to survival as devoutness, the film delicately explores the untoward maniacal disposition of a musician named Prabhu. For Prabhu, the fragile delineation between virtue and vice blurs in one night, when he is provoked into an impulsive liaison of lesser consequence. And yet, it results in an impossible psychosis that throws his life off guard and his musical career into a descending spiral. The Bird of Passage is a sensitive tale of self-discovery, narrated in a style that is at once pragmatic and sentimental.

HARSH CHAUHAN is a self-taught filmmaker and cofounder of Kaveman Kreates. He has worked with directors of national renown such as J.P. Dutta, Aruna Raje, Zafar Hai, and some international masters like Tarsem Singh, Michael O. Sajbel, Gurinder Chadha, Lance Acord, Tom ooper, Marco Martins, Pierre Isoard, André Cerqueira and Harald Sicheritz. Experimenting with multiple mediums and genres (feature films, commercials, corporate films, and documentaries) gave him the opportunity to expand his horizons and see beyond the obvious, to perceive the world with enhanced clarity and a deeper understanding. His current aim is to craft new age cinema in contemporary settings, to strive and make realistic films through measured and moderate cinematography. The Bird of Passage is his first offering to the world of cinema. “Through this film, I wish to deliver an inspiring message of hope in the face of extreme and apparently irreparable adversity,” he says. “The cinematic canvas brings forth the indomitable power of possibility even in moments of abysmal crisis. The film’s unicity is its uncluttered simplicity and intensely felt humanness, its authentic intimacy with the people of Varanasi [and] realism through modest and sensible cinematography.”
scr.: Chittaranjan Giri | cin.: Harsh Chauhan | ed.: Gaurav Arora | cost.: Poonam Singh | snd: Manas Chowdhury | mus.: Abdhesh Goswami, Naveen Kumar, Vidit Tanwar | cast: Chittaranjan Giri, Ashwini Giri, Akash Sagar Chopra, Shivaanii Rai, Amitabh Bhattacharya | prod.: Awadhesh Kumar Singh, Poonam Singh, Harsh Chauhan

Director: Ravi Muppa
India | 2022 | 25 min | drama | Hindi, with English subtitles
TICKETS >>>

Incognito is a Hitchcockian thriller about a lonely motel receptionist who makes an extra buck by selling the hidden-camera videos of his unsuspecting guests on the Internet. But when one such guest turns out to be a young girl who is being trafficked, he faces a crisis of conscience.

Trained as a cinematographer at the New York Film Academy, RAVI MUPPA is a screenwriter and director based in Mumbai. He is responsible for developing and writing various successful films and series such as Stree (2018), Bala (2019), The Family Man (2019) and The Substitutes (2020). Incognito is his first short film as a writer-director, and it has already been selected for competition at the Tirana, Mumbai and Northern Wave Film Festivals. Muppa explains: “Incognito is an exercise in telling a story that is entirely driven by sound and image. The story is told strictly from the protagonist’s point of view, thereby limiting the information given to the audience. In a way, the people in the audience become voyeurs, just like the protagonist of the film.”
scr.: Ravi Muppa | cin.: Azim Moollan | ed.: Konark Saxena | cost.: Rabindra Kumar Sonar | art dir.: Ghanshyam Sharma | snd: Dinesh Kumar | mus.: Mathew Job | cast: Vikram Singh, Ayushi Nema, Dev Chauhan | prod.: Ravi Muppa, Abhijeet Chabbra
Free parking during the screening.
$15 per ticket, plus H.S.T. ($1.95) & service fees.

Chicken Curry (Koli Esru)
2023-06-14 13:00 | The Landmark Cinemas, 801 Kanata Ave., Kanata, Ontario, K2T 1E7, Canada
CANADIAN PREMIERE

Director: Champa P. Shetty
India | 2022 | 84 min | drama | Kannada, with English subtitles
TICKETS >>>

Based on a short story by K.T. Chikkanna, Chicken Curry (Koli Esru) is the story of a poor woman who undergoes tremendous sacrifices and difficulties just to provide her beloved ten-year-old daughter with the taste of chicken curry. Deprived of motherly love as a teenager, Huchheeri was married off to a drunkard by her stepmother, separated from her loving father and her idyllic village, forced to move into another village and do menial labour while caring for her ailing mother-in-law and growing daughter. When she learns of a chicken curry being prepared at the local Chieftain’s house, she cooks some rice in the hope of getting some of that chicken back to her daughter and finally fulfill her craving, providing her with the motherly love that she sorely missed as a child. Unfolding over the course of 24 hours, Huchheeri’s story reflects on the larger story of women’s struggles, past and present, to fight injustices and live a life of dignity despite patriarchal and societal pressures.

CHAMPA P. SHETTY’s journey as an artist began in 1991 as a practitioner of Kannada theatre. Since then, she has evolved as an actor and director under the guidance of accomplished theatre personalities. She also has a spectacular academic track record, having won the Gold Medal as a Master’s recipient in Performing Arts at Bangalore University. Her expressive voice has even made her a renowned dubbing artist, winner of the Best Dubbing Artist award at the Karnataka State Awards in 2008. Her debut film feature, Ammachi Yemba Nanpu (2018), received rave reviews from critics and public alike, winning the Best Cinematography Award at the 2018 Karnataka State Awards. Chicken Curry, her second feature, was part of the official selection at the 2022 New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) and the 2023 Ajanta Ellora International Film Festival (AIFF), where it garnered the Best Actress Award and a Special Jury Mention for Best Child Star. For Shetty, these awards reflect on her own personal experience because she was also recognized for playing Huchheeri 30 years ago. “The character stayed with me as it represented women’s unspoken struggles”, she told Shree D.N. of the Deccan Herald, further insisting on the importance of democratizing art films. “If we stop doing such films”, she adds, “only fight-dance formulas will prevail. I want to give good films to people.” Which is exactly what she does here.
scr.: Champa P. Shetty | cin.: Francis Rajkumar | ed.: Harish Komme | cost.: Geetha Surathkal, Bharathi D. Pai, Rekha Sreevatsa | art dir.: Harsha Cava | snd: Shreyank Nanjappa | mus.: Sangeeth Thomas, Jaipal Raj | cast: Akshatha Pandavpura, Apeksha Nagaraj Chornahalli, Natana Manju, Prakash Shetty, Dakshayani N. | prod.: Vanaja Vaman Rao, Sujatha Gopinath
Free parking during the screening.
$15 per ticket, plus H.S.T. ($1.95) & service fees.

The Faded Footprints (Lokkhir Paa)
2023-06-14 19:00 | The Landmark Cinemas, 801 Kanata Ave., Kanata, Ontario, K2T 1E7, Canada
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE & FEATURE FILM DEBUT

Director: Abhik Das
India | 2022 | 75 min | drama | Bengali, with English subtitles
TICKETS >>>

Based on a story by famous Bengali writer Narayan Gangopadhyay, The Faded Footprints (Lokkhir Paa) is set just before the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. The film follows a coal mine labourer on his way back home with his newly wedded wife, immersing the audience in the couple’s ever-tighter relationship and growing fondness for each other through conversation and the picturesque spectacle of their journey. The added layering to Gangopadhyay’s original story — the author died just before the events pictured onscreen — also provides a sociological insight into the historical reality of the refugee crisis and food shortage that were raging at the time, expanding the protagonists’ personal story into that of Bengal itself. “‘Lokkhi’ is related to food”, said director Das in an interview with The Times of India. “During 1971, Bengal was reeling under a food crisis. Farmers were not able to get complete control over their grains. Consciously, I inserted the character of a farmer who has lost his land and is now a coal labourer, but his earnings have not improved.”

ABHIK DAS is a self-taught independent filmmaker from Kolkata, who cumulates the functions of director, screenwriter, editor, producer, colourist, and visual effects artist. In the last few years, he has directed, written and produced some award-winning shorts, including The Gift (2017) and Ticket (2019). Created during the COVID pandemic, The Faded Footprints is his first feature, landing in Ottawa after successful stints at the Kolkata International Film Festival, the Fajr International Film Festival, the International Film Festival of Thrissur and the Independent Producers Indie Film Festival in Bucharest.
scr.: Abhik Das | cin.: Tonmay Sarkar | ed.: Abhik Das | cost.: R. Wrik | art dir.: Ayan Mukherjee | snd: Manna | mus.: Manna | cast: Kajol Shambhu, Shabnam Mustafi | prod.: Abhik Das, Bidisha Bhaumik

Director: Puneet Prakash
India | 2022 | 25 min | drama | Punjabi, with English subtitles
TICKETS >>>

Set in a small Punjabi village, The Journey Back Home (Birha) tells the story of a simple, loving family that is torn apart by the immature actions of an ambitious child, fascinated by the lure of the West. His actions lead to devastating consequences and the road to redemption is long, lonely, and full of guilt. How often do we pray for the past to be rewritten? Alas, damage done is seldom undone. Can old wounds heal?

Trained in Los Angeles, PUNEET PRAKASH is a prolific, award-winning ad director, who has directed over 150 ads in the span of five years for famous brands such as Pepsi, P&G, Samsung and Lionsgate, often using a touching narrative style. His Gillette film on gender equality won the Cannes Silver Lion for India. Prakash also directs short films; his latest, The Journey Back Home, has already secured the Best Narrative Short Award at NYIFF, the Outstanding Achievement Award at the Gangtok International Film Festival and the Best Short Award in Amsterdam.

scr.: Hemant Singh | cin.: Pratik Deora | ed.: Mukesh Thakur | cost.: Vineet Chauhan | art dir.: Mukesh Kumar | mus.: Anand Bajpai | cast: Rajit Kapoor, Manav Vij, Sahil Mehta, Seema Kaushal | prod.: Ghalib Datta, Navneet Singh Gujral

Free parking during the screening.
$15 per ticket, plus H.S.T. ($1.95) & service fees.

Follower
2023-06-15 13:00 | The Landmark Cinemas, 801 Kanata Ave., Kanata, Ontario, K2T 1E7, Canada
OTTAWA PREMIERE & FEATURE FILM DEBUT

Director: Harshad Nalawade
India | 2023 | 98 min | drama | Marathi, Kannada, Hindi and English, with English subtitles
TICKETS >>>

In a small town riddled with territorial disputes between two linguistic communities, Raghu, a radicalized journalist, works for an online media that acts as a mouthpiece for an extremist leader. Raghu is strongly influenced by the man’s words and believes that his community has been wronged. But when the line between his professional and personal life starts blurring, and Raghu is faced with some inconvenient truths, he chooses denial and starts to act impulsively, causing sinister events that will have him reflect on a simpler time. A time when he was not a radicalized young gun, but a man who had not yet succumbed to the identity crisis perpetuated by a divided society. Follower is the nuanced story of this radicalized youth as he navigates and then peddles a one-sided tale of a society divided by religion, language, and beliefs. On his journey, political opinion will overpower familial equations, old friendships will suffer from irreparable loss, but life will have to go on.

Born in Belgaum, Karnataka, HARSHAD NALAWADE received his Bachelor’s degree in Media Studies from Symbiosis University in Pune. Since then, he has worked as an Assistant Director on various advertising films and has directed four shorts (Kirdaar, Trivikrama, A Return Gift and Bubbles). He has even co-written his own Netflix Original Show entitled Soup. Dreamed up in 2018, Follower is his first feature film. Initially financed through crowdfunding for fear that no producer would embrace such a hotly political topic, the project eventually got selected for the National Film Development Corporation of India’s Film Bazaar Work-in-Progress Lab. It is based on the director’s own experiences growing up in a linguistically marginalized community of a border city and seeing how his people’s victimhood became an easy target for the peddlers of hate. Says Nalawade: “Our story digs deeper into the protagonist’s life and the social structure of the town and attempts to explore an era infected with hate, propagated by misinformation about each other. The idea of ‘Son of the Soil’ is perpetuated by the politicians and media for their benefit and, as a result, the attitude towards immigrants is getting more and more hostile. The mindset of ‘US vs. THEM’ has consumed a large part of our society.”
scr.: Harshad Nalawade | cin.: Saket Gyani | ed.: Maulik Sharma | snd: Rahul Gujar | mus.: Abhigyan Arora, Pranjal Gupta | cast: Donna Munshi, Harshad Nalawade, Shalini Chougule, Raghu Prakash, Atul Deshmukh, Umesh Teli, Mandar Jagtap | prod.: Vinay Mishra, Preety Ali, Pallavi Rohatgi, Raghavan Bharadwaj, Maulik Sharma, Saket Gyani, Samyak Singh
Free parking during the screening.
$15 per ticket, plus H.S.T. ($1.95) & service fees.

Salt of the Earth (Bhoomiyude Uppu)
2023-06-15 13:00 | The Landmark Cinemas, 801 Kanata Ave., Kanata, Ontario, K2T 1E7, Canada
CANADIAN PREMIERE & FEATURE FILM DEBUT

Director: Sunny Joseph
India | 2022 | 85 min | drama | Malayalam, with English subtitles
TICKETS >>>

Salt of the Earth (Bhoomiyude Uppu) examines the grand questions of good and evil. Emmanuel is a devout and gentle novice, living a quiet life in a Capuchin monastery in Kerala. He also runs a dispensary in the nearby tea estate. A television program triggers questions about God’s silence in Emmanuel’s mind, while comrade George is fighting for the rights of the estate workers. One day, an enigmatic woman, Sophy, arrives at the monastery to meet scholarly Father Francis and gather information about the forgotten women in Christian traditions. The Rector, Father Thomas, who is also an exorcist, immediately labels her as an agent of Satan and urges Emmanuel to spy on her. Emmanuel is attracted to her but believes the Rector and decides to eliminate her, further cleansing his own sinful desires. But is Sophy really evil? Will Emmanuel become a warrior of Christ or Satan?

A graduate of the Film and Television Institute in Pune, SUNNY JOSEPH is an acclaimed cinematographer, with 40 years of professional experience. He has worked as a DOP on over 60 feature films, in 12 Indian languages, and has directed a dozen short films and two television serials totalling 10 episodes. He is also a respected professor at the Narayanan National Institute of Visual Sciences and Arts in Kerala, a founding member of the Indian Society of Cinematographers and the current president of the Cinematographers Union of Malayalam Cinema. Salt of the Earth is his debut feature as a director and has already been screened at the Moscow International Film Festival, the Kolkata International Film Festival and the International Film Festival of Thrissur, where it won the National Award for Best Debut Film. It is a direct embodiment of the director’s spiritual musings. “When I hear stories of intolerance and hatred happening across the country, I thought that I should talk about true spirituality”, said Joseph during an interview with the North East Film Journal. “So, the ideas of Narayana Guru (One Caste, One Religion, One God for Humanity) made me tell this story. […] The place of women in religion was also a subtext in the story. Why is God a Father and not a Mother? I believe that true spirituality is knowing the interconnectedness of one another. And knowing that we, all, are ONE.”
scr.: Shihabuddin Poithumkadavu, Sunny Joseph | cin.: Arjun Ajith, Souvik Burman, Anil Sunny | ed.: Ramu and Aravind | cost.: Thampi Aryanad | art dir.: Biju Chinnathil | snd: T. Krishnan Unni | mus.: Isaac Thomas Kottukapally | cast: Mithun Nalini, Auroshikha Dey, Gangadharan Menon, V.K. Sreenivas, Raghoothaman, Jayadeep, Shylaja P. Ambu | prod.: Sunny Joseph

Director: Asmit Pathare
India | 2022 | 22 min | drama | Hindi, with English subtitles
TICKETS >>>

In Two Way Street, a simple trip home after a long train journey becomes a nail-biting, hate-fuelled ride when a cab driver refuses to enter his client’s neighbourhood, leading to a battle of will between the bigoted taximan and the headstrong victim of his discriminating views, who just won’t take no for an answer.

ASMIT PATHARE is a screenwriter, filmmaker, actor and stage lighting designer, winner of the META Award for Best Light Design in 2017. His short films, including The Doubty Dhoble: You Not Drink (2012) and Shankar Aur Bhagwan (2013), have been screened at the Mumbai International Film Festival, the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles, the Kerala International Film Festival as well as the Sapporo Short Film Fest in Japan. He has also participated in the international collaborative venture The Owner (2010), where 25 filmmakers from 16 countries came together to make one feature film. Back home, he has spearheaded the creative process of The Last Act (2012), another collaborative effort, this time between 12 filmmakers from 12 different Indian cities, and the winner of the 2013 ABBY Award at Goafest.
scr.: Annie Zaidi | cin.: Vikas Urs | ed.: Radhika Murthy | snd: Varun Gupta | mus.: Kaizad Gherda | cast: Joy Sengupta, Gagan Dev Riar | prod.: Raj Kishor Khaware
Free parking during the screening.
$15 per ticket, plus H.S.T. ($1.95) & service fees.

Muthayya
2023-06-15 13:30 | VIP Cineplex Cinemas Lansdowne, 325 Marche Way, Unit 107, Ottawa, Ontario, K1S 5J3, Canada
OTTAWA PREMIERE & FEATURE FILM DEBUT

Director: Bhaskhar Maurya
India | 2022 | 119 min | comedy | Telegu, with English subtitles
TICKETS >>>

Set in Chennuru, a remote village in the state of Telangana, Muthayya tells the story of the eponymous 70-year-old man who dreams of acting in the movies before he dies. A dedicated film enthusiast, Muthayya spends his time between the film theatre and the company of his best friend, 24-year-old bike mechanic Malli, with whom he shares all of his joys, sorrows, and desires. As the story unfolds, he tries to exhibit his acting skills through every possible medium, including short films and TikTok videos, but the obstacles he faces in the process leave him heartbroken. And yet, somehow, he remains hopeful. Will he manage to fulfil his dearest wish in life? Will he manage to achieve his dream and inspire everyone around him?

BHASKHAR MAURYA is a Hyderabad-based filmmaker who has been working on independent films in the Telugu language for the past few years. Shot in 15 days, Muthayya is not only director Maurya’s first feature behind the camera, producer Vrinda Prasad’s first production and actor Arun Raj’s first effort in front of the camera, but also star Sudhakar Reddy’s first film as a lead. It premiered at the UK Asian Film Festival in May 2022, then went on to a successful festival run, winning the Best Debut Film Director Award at the Meta Film Fest in Dubai, the Best Feature Film Jury Award at Indic Film Utsav and the Best Indian Language Film Award at the Kolkata Indian Film Festival.
scr.: Bhaskhar Maurya | cin.: Divakar Mani | ed.: Sai Murali | art dir.: Shivaraj Manne | snd: Vamsi Priya | mus.: Karthik Rodriguez | cast: Sudhakar Reddy, Arun Raj, Mounika Bomma, Purna Chandra | prod.: Vamsi Krishna Karumanchi, Vrinda Prasad, Kedar Selagamsetty
Free parking during the screening.
$15 per ticket, plus H.S.T. ($1.95) & service fees.

Powai
2023-06-15 18:00 | The Landmark Cinemas, 801 Kanata Ave., Kanata, Ontario, K2T 1E7, Canada
OTTAWA PREMIERE & FEATURE FILM DEBUT

Director: Kuldip Patel
India | 2022 | 123 min | drama | Hindi, with English subtitles
TICKETS >>>

Powai is a triptych of stories about three women from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds living in the titular suburb of Mumbai: a domestic worker, a government preschool teacher and a software professional. As they struggle to realize their aspirations and claim their autonomy in a fast-changing, male-dominated, chaotic, and often unforgiving urban landscape, their lives intersect in small, unexpected ways.

KULDIP PATEL is a tech entrepreneur and independent filmmaker based in Powai, near Mumbai. His first film was a Hindi-language short called Paroskh (2012). He then co-founded November Films, through which he produced Dhunki (2019), a hugely popular Gujarati-language film that he wrote, and which received a large distribution, opening on 125 screens across India. Powai is his debut feature film as a director. It premiered at the Moscow International Film Festival before coming to the New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF), where it garnered the Best Screenplay award. The film’s story is based on the director’s own experience as an inhabitant of Powai. “I was fascinated by its diversity”, he says, “where you meet migrants from all corners of the country working in different domains, living starkly different lives in this closely knit neighbourhood. It is like a microcosm of India in a way. […] The suburb’s geographical range is quite cinematic with hills, lakes, parks, office complexes and underbelly lanes. And while the subjects are universal, I wanted to treat them entirely as personal struggles, keeping the stories and characters rooted and faithful to their space, culture and social milieus.”
scr.: Kuldip Patel | cin.: Vidya Nath Bharti | ed.: Shankar Regar, Kratika Adhikari | cost.: Neha Patel, Tejal Rane | art dir.: Niraj Singh | snd: Urmil Pandya | cast: Nishant Bahl, Satyen Chatuverdi, Urmila Mahanta, Smriti Mishra, Shruti Pandey, Ashriya Vast, Princi Lakra | prod.: Kuldip Patel, Neha Patel, Anish Shah, Jay Shah
Free parking during the screening.
$15 per ticket, plus H.S.T. ($1.95) & service fees.

Seventeeners (Hadinelentu)
2023-06-16 12:00 | VIP Cineplex Cinemas Lansdowne, 325 Marche Way, Unit 107, Ottawa, Ontario, K1S 5J3, Canada
OTTAWA PREMIERE

Director: Prithvi Konanur
India | 2022 | 122 min | drama | Marathi, Kannada, with English subtitles
TICKETS >>>

Class 12 students Hari and Deepa record a sex video in an empty classroom after school. But when the video is leaked online, all hell breaks loose and the lives of both young people and their families become toxically entangled. Parents are summoned and college authorities intrusively intervene. Soon, the incident is blown out of proportions and turns into a soul-sucking mess involving court hearings and police investigations. Aside from the anecdotal and opportune nature of the narrative, Seventeeners (Hadinelentu) also addresses the deep-seated gender, caste and class divide that permeates Indian society. Being from a poor Dalit working-class family, opposite of Hari’s privileged Brahmin lineage, Deepa stands to lose much more from the court proceedings than he does — namely her entire future. Then, there is the issue of gender, as her exchange value now comes into question, her mother being obsessed with the idea that Hari’s family might not allow her daughter to marry their son. All the while, the authorities’ supposed impartiality crumbles under the weight of systematic sexism. “At least he is a boy,” remarks vice-principal Seetha in a conversation with Deepa, “shouldn’t you have been more careful?”

PRITHVI KONANUR is a former software professional who entered the movie industry through an English screenplay entitled The Abiding, which was optioned for a Hollywood film directed by Rob Schmidt. This experience allowed him to enter the New York Film Academy, where he received his filmmaking degree. Since then, he has directed several acclaimed feature films, including Waves (2012), which premiered at TIFF; Railway Children (2016), recipient of a National Award, two State Awards and a nomination for the Golden Gateway Award at the Mumbai Film Festival; and Where is Pinki? (2020), winner of the Best Screenplay and Best Actress awards at OIFFA 2021. Seventeeners, his latest effort, premiered at the Busan International Film Festival and was the only Indian film to compete in the prestigious World Competition section at the Pune International Film Festival. “We have in our society a system that’s way too complex and way too dysfunctional,” the director said about the film’s portrayal of inequities during an interview with Vague Visages. “Society is unfair to both the privileged and the underprivileged. But the difference is that its impact is a lot harsher on the less fortunate. […] When you are privileged, you can deal with a difficult situation because you have a support system. When you falter, you will be lifted up.”
scr.: Prithvi Konanur, Anupama Hegde | cin.: Arjun Raja | ed.: Shivkumar Swamy | cost.: Kavitha | art dir.: Ramachandra Hosur | snd: Ravi Hiremath | mus.: Narendra Kumar J. | cast: Sherlyn Bhosale, Neeraj Matthew, Rekha Kudligi, Bhavani Prakash, Ravi Hebballi, Sudha Belawadi, Nagendra Sha | prod.: Prithvi Konanur, Thejaswi Konanur
Free parking during the screening.
$15 per ticket, plus H.S.T. ($1.95) & service fees.

The Quarrel (Vazhakku)
2023-06-16 13:00 | VIP Cineplex Cinemas Lansdowne, 325 Marche Way, Unit 107, Ottawa, Ontario, K1S 5J3, Canada
OTTAWA PREMIERE

Director: Sanal Kumar Sasidharan
India | 2022 | 93 min | drama | Malayalam, with English subtitles
TICKETS >>>

The Quarrel (Vazhakku) tells the story of a man on the run. On the day he agreed to appear in court to sign a mutual divorce, Siddharthan, who is also a lawyer, cheats on his wife Lakshmi and goes on an inland drive. He urges Lakshmi over the phone to postpone the divorce, citing their daughter Tara’s future, but the attempt fails. On the way back, he meets Sathi and her mute daughter who were leaving home due to marital problems. This meeting changes his outlook on life.

Born in Kerala in 1977, SANAL KUMAR SASIDHARAN started as a lawyer, but in 2001, his love of cinema led him to form the Kazhcha Film Forum, dedicated to making independent movies through crowdfunding. After three shorts (Athisayalokam, Parole and Frog), he started delving into feature filmmaking, with a strand of award-winning films, including Six Feet High (2014) and An Off-Day Game (2015), both winners of the FIPRESCI Award at the Festival of Kerala; the unscripted marvel Sexy Durga (2017), winner of the Hivos Tiger Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam; Shadow of Water (2019), which competed in Venice; and A’hr (2020), nominated for the Kim Jiseok Award at the Busan International Film Festival. His latest film, The Quarrel (Vazhakku), is based on his own personal observations about marital strife and the inherent violence of human hegemony over nature. “In the village in which I was born and raised, marital strife was common”, he says. “I have always noticed that the tensions it creates are reflected not only in gender relations but also in the ecosystem and depths of violence that pervades society as a whole. One of the most important things that struck me regarding this was the anxiety about the future of children, the mute spectators of this violence, growing up in a state of unrest. […] This film is the sum total of my thoughts on the subject.”
scr.: Sanal Kumar Sasidharan | cin.: Selvaraj Chandru | ed.: Sanal Kumar Sasidharan | cost.: Vaisak Ravi | art dir.: Rajasekharan Marthandam | snd: Sanal Kumar Sasidharan | mus.: Prithvi Chandrasekhar | cast: Tovino Thomas, Kani Kusruti, Azees Nedumangad, Sudev Nair, Byju Netto | prod.: Tovino Thomas, Girish Nair, Faizal Shajin Hassan
Free parking during the screening.
$15 per ticket, plus H.S.T. ($1.95) & service fees.

Mariam
2023-06-16 13:30 | VIP Cineplex Cinemas Lansdowne, 325 Marche Way, Unit 107, Ottawa, Ontario, K1S 5J3, Canada
OTTAWA PREMIERE

Director: Arvind Pratap
India | 2022 | 78 min | drama | Hindi, with English subtitles
TICKETS >>>

Mariam tells the story of a migrant couple, Mariam and Abdul, who live with their three daughters in the slums of Mumbai. They survive thanks to Mariam’s meagre salary as a maid for posh families. When the COVID lockdown is declared, their fight for survival in this extravagant city becomes even harder. Not only is Mariam’s employment in jeopardy, but her children now need access to a computer or smartphone in order to attend online classes, forcing her to get money from illegal surrogacy. Things take a turn for the worse, however, when the baby’s parents disappear. A traumatic journey begins for the family as they are faced with a new series of hurdles and Mariam suffers the unexpected consequences of her misdeeds. Eventually, the family is forced, like so many migrants in Mumbai, to consider abandoning their big city dreams to go back to their village.

ARVIND PRATAP is a self-taught screenwriter and director. He was born and raised in the small village of Chauri Chaura near Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh. After completing his MBA in Marketing, he switched to filmmaking. He now works in Mumbai as Managing Director of Folklore Films, which supports independent filmmaking in the region. He is best known for making indigenous and realistic films with professional and non-professional actors. His filmography includes The Reluctant Crime (2020), winner of the Best Director, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor awards at the Antakya International Film Festival and Life is Suffering. Death is Salvation (2022), screened last year at OIFFA. Mariam is Pratap’s third feature. It premiered at the Busan International Film Festival, where it drew the attention of Variety magazine, which published an interview with Pratap and the film’s star, Chitrangada Satarupa. “Spending some time in the slum of Mumbai, I explored migrant workers’ lives in detail. The story of Mariam arises from those experiences”, says Pratap. “The photography is intentionally focused on the characters’ movements and the film’s tempo is relatively slow paced and silent to reflect the rhythm of life at the time of the pandemic.”
scr.: Arvind Pratap | cin.: Sunil Dalvi | ed.: Arvind Pratap | snd: Biswadeb Banerjee | mus.: Keshuv Huria | cast: Chitrangada Satarupa, Bhupesh Singh | prod.: Sanjay Bhutiani, Shubhashish Bhutiani, Awanish Kotnaal, Arvind Pratap, Sajida Sharma

Free parking during the screening.
$15 per ticket, plus H.S.T. ($1.95) & service fees.

72-Hour & Youth Short Film Challenges
2023-06-17 10:00 | VIP Cineplex Cinemas Lansdowne, 325 Marche Way, Unit 107, Ottawa, Ontario, K1S 5J3, Canada
TICKETS >>>

72-HOUR SHORT FILM CHALLENGE
Challengers receive 3 mandatory parameters to integrate into their films and they have 72 hours to complete their works. Complete details >>>
RULES OF THE CHALLENGE
1. The Challenge is open to anyone over 18 years of age.
2. Individual filmmakers (the “Challenger”) may register, not teams (though filmmakers can work with as many or as few people as they like on the production of their film).
3. The films can be of any type (fiction, documentary, experimental, art film) or genre (comedy, drama, horror, science fiction, fantasy, etc.)
PARAMETERS & REQUIREMENTS
On Thursday, June 1, aka Pitch Night, the Challengers were informed of the mandatory parameters to integrate into their films. The first two of these was announced at Pitch Night; parameter 3, the curve ball, was announced 24 hours later. They included:
• Parameter 1: Specific length (for ex., 3.5 minutes [or 210 seconds])
• Parameter 2: Theme (for ex., “Discovery”)
• Parameter 3: Cultural Inclusion/Reference. One of the following options:
a. An “Indian reference” (for ex., “The words ‘XXXXXX’ must be included in the dialogue.”); OR
b. A cultural object must be incorporated into the scene (for ex., a “dream catcher”). OIFFA organizers let the Challengers know what the Cultural Reference was 2 days into the Challenge.
GRAND PRIZE
All registered Challengers have the opportunity to win the $2,000 Grand Prize.
RUNNER-UP
The runner-up Challenger will receive a $500 Prize.
JURY
The winning films are selected by a jury of 2 to 3 members.
They judge the films based on which one best incorporates the Challenge’s parameters, as well as on script, cinematography, sound, acting (if fiction), etc.

TICKETS >>>

YOUTH SHORT FILM CHALLENGE
Challengers produce a short film, for which they receive 2 mandatory parameters to integrate. They have 2 weeks to complete their works. Complete details >>>
RULES OF THE CHALLENGE
1. The Challenge is open to anyone under 17 years of age..
2. Individual filmmakers (the “Challenger”) may register, not teams (though filmmakers can work with as many or as few people as they like on the production of their film).
3. The films can be of any type (fiction, documentary, experimental, art film) or genre (comedy, drama, horror, science fiction, fantasy, etc.)
4. The films should be no longer than 3 min.
PARAMETERS & REQUIREMENTS
On Sunday, May 21, aka Pitch Night, the Challengers were informed of the mandatory parameters to integrate into their films.
Parameter 1 was announced at Pitch Night; parameter 2, the curve ball, was announced 2 days later:
• Parameter 1: Theme (for ex., “Discovery”)
• Parameter 2: Cultural Reference, aka the curve ball:
An object must be incorporated into the scene (for ex., a “flower”).
GRAND PRIZE
All registered Challengers have the opportunity to win the $500 Grand Prize.
RUNNER-UP
The runner-up Challenger will receive a $250 Prize.
JURY
The winning films are selected by a jury of 2 to 3 members.
They judge the films based on which one best incorporates the Challenge’s parameters, as well as on script, cinematography, sound, acting (if fiction), etc.

Free parking during the screening.
$4 per ticket, plus H.S.T. ($0.52) & service fees.

Siya
2023-06-17 10:30 | VIP Cineplex Cinemas Lansdowne, 325 Marche Way, Unit 107, Ottawa, Ontario, K1S 5J3, Canada
CLOSING FILM
CANADIAN PREMIERE & FEATURE FILM DEBUT

Director: Manish Mundra
India | 2022 | 117 min | drama | Hindi, with English subtitles
TICKETS >>>

Inspired by a real-life incident, Siya tells the tragic story of a teenage girl from Devganj village in Uttar Pradesh. After being brutally raped by an incumbent Member of the Legislative Assembly, she decides to fight for justice against all odds by seeking the help of a lawyer friend. But what kind of justice can a poor peasant girl expect against influential male members of the community? In the vein of Nisha Pahuja’s award-winning documentary To Kill a Tiger (2022), Siya constitutes a poignant and urgent reflection on the fate of sexual assault victims in a male-dominated society where accountability fades in the face of privilege. And while it is made to shock the viewer, particularly in its depiction of a deeply flawed justice system, the film remains quite restrained in its depiction of the barbaric acts perpetrated against the heroine. Emotional realism is the key to affect here, rather than the spectacle of her physical ordeal, allowing director Mundra to capitalize on Pooja Pandey’s profoundly empathic and painfully researched performance in the lead role.

MANISH MUNDRA is known primarily as a producer and founder of Drishyam Films, a global motion picture studio responsible for several international award-winning films such as Ankhon Dekhi (2014), recipient of three Filmfare Awards and three Screen Awards; Masaan (2015); Umrika (2015); Waiting (2015); Dhanak (2016); and Newton (2017), winner of the National Award for Best Hindi Film and India’s official entry to the Academy Awards in 2018. He is also known for establishing the Drishyam–Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab for aspiring Indian screenwriters. In 2022, he first donned the director’s hat for Siya, a poignant social drama nominated for the Best Debut Award at the 53rd International Film Festival of India. “Our film is an exploration, a study of helplessness when a survivor of sexual abuse decides to fight”, says Mundra. “We wanted this exploration to be raw, brazen and to hit hard in an urge to generate anger and thereby conversations on what truly needs to change. We hope that the film challenges our notions of abuse, the aftermath, and the fact that, when the abuse doesn’t end at the rape, how far does a person really need to go to get the justice that she deserves.”
scr.: Haider Rizvi, Manish Mundra, Samah | cin.: Rafey Mehmood, Subhransu | ed.: Manendra Singh Lodhi | cost.: Sujata Rajain | art dir.: Seema Kashyap | snd: Manoj M. Goswami | mus.: Rajarshi Sanyal | cast: Pooja Pandey, Vineet Kumar Singh, Madhvendra Jha | prod.: Raghav Gupta
Free parking during the screening.
$15 per ticket, plus H.S.T. ($1.95) & service fees.
