Set in a remote village in Uttarakhand, Fire In The Mountains tells the story of Chandra, a pragmatic and hardworking mother who saves money to have a road constructed to her home so that she can take her wheelchair-bound son for physiotherapy. Her husband, on the other hand, believes that a shamanic ritual is the only cure for their son’s condition and steals her savings in order to perform the ritual. Exploited by deeply embedded patriarchal inequalities and subjected to numerous humiliations, Chandra nevertheless confounds expectations in a dramatic denouement. The film explores the tensions between a rapidly modernising India and older, more traditional values.
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Festival Appearances
Sundance Film Festival 2021
New York Indian Film Festival 2021 – Winner Best Director
Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles 2021 – IFFLA Audience Award
Indian Film Festival Of Melbourne 2021 – Winner Best Indie Film
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Ajitpal Singh
Born in Punjab, Ajitpal was eight years old when his father, a farmer and ex-army man, moved the family to Ahmedabad and worked as a security guard. Ajitpal grew up in a ghetto amidst poverty and violence, and faced a lot of discrimination due to anti-Sikh sentiments in India at the time.
Ajitpal’s first screenplay was part of Sundance Screenwriters Lab 2012 where it won the Sundance Grant. His mentors included Oscar-winning director Asif Kapadia (Amy) and Oscar-nominated screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga (Amores Perros, Babel and 21 Grams).
His debut feature as a writer-director, Fire In The Mountains, premiered at Sundance 2021 in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition as the only film from South Asia among 10 films selected in the category. His past films, Rammat-Gammat (2018) and Hummingbird (2018), have also won critical acclaim internationally.
Thu, 3 Nov | 5:30 pm | Main Audi
Thu, 3 Nov | 7:00 pm | Picture Time 1