Programme 2022

Dreams Awaken | Jaagte Khwab | Aprajita Gupta | India | 2022 | 19 mins. | English, Hindi | Director attending A Flight of the Lost Dreamy Bird | Hare Patte Ke Rang Ki Patrangi Aur Kahin Kho Gaya Naam... Read More

Stay Quiet | Chupi Roh | Disha Bhardwaj | India | 2023 | 16 Mins. | Hindi, Pahari | Director attending Out Beyond | Salman Alam Khan | Pakistan, Usa | 2023 | 5 Mins. | Urdu Kulfi | Kiran Narayan... Read More

Is the short film a stepping stone to feature films, a calling card to showcase one’s potential in the hope of moving up the so-called ladder to more serious filmmaking? Is it the poor cousin,... Read More

Like in many parts of the world, the advent of digital technology and the democratisation of cinema production has led to an explosion of independent filmmaking in India. No longer dependent on the... Read More

The essay film reflects on the life and work of the North American activist Angela Davis. The film is neither a biography nor a fictional narrative. Instead, Diawara’s footage, which is... Read More

With his father in prison and his brother abroad for work, young Rakib works as the lone housekeeper in an empty mansion belonging to Purna, a retired general whose family Rakib’s clan have served... Read More

Akzhol, a new graduate of the orphanage, starts a new and independent life. He is convinced that his father is alive and begins to search for him. After meeting his neighbour Dimash, the two begin to... Read More

Through the discerning lens of a Bahujan feminist filmmaker operating within the upper-caste Indian film industry, the film delves deep into critical themes of liberty, equality, fraternity, social... Read More

Fallen Leaves tells the story of two lonely people who meet each other by chance in the Helsinki night and try to find the first and ultimate love of their lives. Their path towards this honourable... Read More

In 1990, 12-year-old Benny, a Native American boy from San Diego, is reluctantly sent to his Grandma Lorraine’s Navajo ranch in Arizona. Despite the language barrier and harsh living... Read More

After 24 years of absence, director A-Liang Elvis Lu returns home to his family in a rural area of southwestern Taiwan. His elder brother is a psychic that communicates Taoist deities’ career... Read More

Dasru and Vaano lead an anonymous life as migrant labourers on a Mumbai construction site with their infant daughter, Joram. The family’s world collides with Karma, a female tribal leader from... Read More

In October 2019, an unforeseen revolution ignited a social upheaval. Over one and a half million individuals took to the streets of Santiago, demanding increased democracy, improved living standards,... Read More

Glimpses of everyday life in Ladakh on a long summer evening. Through vignettes of daily life, landscapes, and wildlife, set entirely during the liminal blue hour, Ri paints a portrait of Ladakh as... Read More

A historical overview of India’s coercive Family Planning programme and its effect on women. The film examines this issue from the point of view of women themselves, those who were pushed to... Read More

While The Green Grass Grows is an audio-visual, trance-like, epic diary that looks at the miracles contained in everyday things and occurrences. Peter Mettler follows and weaves, with his unique... Read More

In the city of Srinagar, Nargis searches for her missing husband, Manzoor, until she is forced to hopelessly return to her village home. With a little help from a local man Yaseen, she silently toils... Read More

Monographs is a project born during the COVID-19 pandemic, serving as a critical platform for discourse on moving images beyond the confines of cinema. The second edition of Monographs, guided by... Read More

tes synopsis Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer... Read More

Last year, DIFF launched Filmlab South Asia – a workshop for emerging producer- director teams – in partnership with Festival 3 Continents’ Produire au Sud (PAS). DIFF is excited to host... Read More

Coming to terms or, Making your Terms? | Kyaa Hai Ye Samjhauta | Hansa Thapliyal | India | 2023 | 9 mins. | Hindi | Director attending Nocturnal Burger | Nischachar Burger | Reema Maya | India, USA |... Read More

Over the past decade, Pa. Ranjith has emerged as one of the foremost and revolutionary voices in Tamil cinema. By focusing directly on anti-caste politics, his films have challenged the hegemonic and... Read More

Born in Tangier, Morocco, in 1980, Maryam Touzani began her career in journalism in London before returning to Morocco to specialise in North African cinema. She ventured into filmmaking with... Read More

When his wife sends him to rehab for his alcohol addiction without consent, Radha’s world shatters, fuelling his desperate escape plan. Loneliness and estrangement from his family follow as he... Read More

A woman in her early 40s is temporarily staying at her friend’s house, who is taking care of a cat. Simultaneously, an elderly man in his 70s, living alone, has recently lost his ageing cat.... Read More

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a collective of indigenous artists belonging to India’s ‘ex-criminal’ De-notified Tribes and associated with Budhan Theatre, decided to produce... Read More

With Norway’s dizzyingly beautiful mountain landscapes as its monumental backdrop, Olin embarks on an existential journey with her own ageing parents as the human yardstick within the vast... Read More

Terrestrial Verses follows everyday people from all walks of life as they navigate the cultural, religious, and institutional constraints imposed on them by various social authorities, from school... Read More

Amidst loss and lockdowns, Tora’s husband Jaan, a loving father and kind neighbour, struggles to keep his small-town business afloat and grapples with uncertainty and restlessness. With a worldview... Read More

Shakib is a homeless day labourer who never got over the loss of his wife and son in an earthquake years ago. Over the last couple of years, he has developed a relationship with a deaf and mute... Read More

Five years old Yang spends an afternoon with his mother on a shopping trip. When he throws a tantrum after feeling neglected, she decides to punish him by walking away. A seemingly harmless... Read More

Shot on mobile phone cameras in western Uttar Pradesh, In Between Us seeks to explore the personal positions of two women—Rajkumari, a social activist, and Ruchika, a documentary filmmaker and... Read More

An estranged migrant working-class couple embarks on a deeply emotional journey to find friendship in one another as they grapple with the loss of their daughter to an ill-fated custom.

During the peak of the 2020 lockdown, millions of Indian migrant workers were forced to walk thousands of miles back to their villages from big cities. The mother of a young migrant laborer awaits... Read More

Amidst the rise of saffronisation among Indian youth, Saleel, a queer content creator works for the extremist Vinchu Sena party. When tasked with a destructive mission against an author, a mistaken... Read More

In Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, a woman walks into a chadari store in Kabul to buy her first full-body veil and faces an uncertain future.

Across the breadth of the Himalaya, from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh, including Nepal and Bhutan, a cinematic churning is becoming apparent as a new generation of filmmakers emerges, determined to... Read More

Guneet Monga burst onto the filmmaking stage as a young, unknown, outsider woman who pulled the rug from under the entrenched preconceptions of a primarily male-dominated industry and proved against... Read More

In the heart of Amar Colony, a dilapidated building, Meera seeks excitement amidst her pregnancy and a dull marriage, while her absent husband harbours his own secrets. Her young and idle neighbour,... Read More

Manish is a talented and athletic street dancer from Mumbai who dreams of becoming a professional against the wishes of his struggling parents who have moved to the big city from a small village in... Read More

In rural central Kerala, Sony, a Catholic man in his late twenties, appears at first glance to be a benevolent and caring individual. However, beneath his public façade lies a hidden persona. As... Read More

When cardamom prices plummet in her village, it disrupts the once-stable life of nine-year-old Guras. To add to the chaos, her beloved pet dog disappears. Amidst the backdrop of a looming leopard... Read More

I am Sirat features a transgender woman who is caught between duty and self-determination. As Aman, she lives in New Delhi with her widowed mother as a son, fulfilling responsibilities in the... Read More

Innocence tackles the issue of militarisation and its impact on the lives of young Israeli people who are forced to serve against their own identity and values. Through a narration based on the... Read More

In the oceanside village of Iyi, the revered Mama Efe acts as an intermediary between the people and the all-powerful water deity Mami Wata. But when a young boy is lost to a virus, Efe’s devoted... Read More

In a village in rural India, a young determined girl, Savita, yearns for education and a bright future. However, as her farmer parents anxiously struggle to find a suitable match for her, societal... Read More

Amidst the migration of their friends and neighbours for the winter, two widows, Ratima and Kalima, choose to remain behind as caretakers of their empty village. Isolated and snowbound for a hundred... Read More

Hirayama seems utterly content with his simple life as a cleaner of toilets in Tokyo. Outside of his very structured everyday routine he enjoys his passion for music and books. And he loves trees and... Read More

1980. Southern Iran. The people of Abadan have been fighting an Iraqi siege. Among them is 14-year-old Omid, who has chosen to stay in the city with his grandfather, waiting for his elder brother to... Read More

In this animation feature, inspired by a feminist science-fiction story written in 1905 in Bengal, the protagonist, Inés, embarks on a journey through India searching for traces of Ladyland, a... Read More

In his role as a defence lawyer at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Krispus Ayena faces a profound ethical dilemma: Can an individual be both an executioner and a victim? Ayena’s... Read More

Set in Kalupur, a neighbourhood in the old city of Ahmedabad, this slice-of-life film follows the daily life of Razzak and his family through an observational lens. Razzak, an unemployed father of... Read More

In a milieu challenging dominant, exclusivist Hindu caste notions, Anand grew up surrounded by the universalist idea of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” – the belief that the world is one... Read More

In the West African republic of Benin, a family recounts their ancestor’s first encounter with Europeans in 1548 to a European film crew. As they share their version of history, including... Read More

Shabnam delves into the discomfort of colonial history through Bengali language, creating a time gap between sound and text, unearthing hidden narratives and archival images to expose inequality.

A man who works as a security guard in an apartment complex goes about his day, while the residents who live there express their views on caste, identity, and their own social standing. But actions... Read More

For a filmmaker, getting a rejection from a film festival is a heart-wrenching blow. Multiple rejections can be fatal in undermining confidence and self-worth, especially for someone starting out on... Read More

Documentaries have come a long way from their origins as being factual and objective representations of true events, although from their inception, questions have been raised about their authenticity... Read More

A small holiday house by the Baltic sea. The days are hot and it hasn’t rained in weeks. Four young people come together, friends old and new. As the parched forests around them begin to ignite, so... Read More

Inspired by Iranian cinema and the poetry of Forough Farrokhzad, a young Indian filmmaker journeys to Iran to witness how resistance becomes a daily act of survival in Iranian society. Despite... Read More

Bawa’s Garden is a road movie in search of the works of renowned Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa. The film follows a protagonist scouring the island for the ‘lost’ garden of Lunuganga.... Read More

Through her child’s eyes, Patpro will go through three periods of the history of her indigenous people in the heart of the Brazilian forest. Tirelessly persecuted, but guided by their ancestral... Read More

In a small town torn by territorial disputes between two linguistic communities, Raghu, a radicalised journalist working for an online media outlet, becomes a mouthpiece for an extremist leader.... Read More

Outside Kolkata, a few jute mills crank on, virtually unchanged since the industrial revolution. Powered by steam and sweat, work is a dance to the rhythms of the century-old machines. The Golden... Read More

A reluctant Thien must take the body of his sister-in-law, who died in a freak motorcycle accident in Saigon, and her five-year-old son Dao, who miraculously survived the crash, to their hometown in... Read More

In a remote Malabar village, the enigmatic figure of Kummatty looms large in folklore. To the village’s children, he’s both a bogeyman and a magician. One day, Kummatty materialises with... Read More

“​Hands destined to mould a thing of beauty​”. Thus wrote James Cousins, eminent writer, of a young Sikh potter he met in Japan in 1922. The film celebrates the life and legacy of... Read More

Young Moroccan filmmaker, Asmae el Moudir, wants to know why she only has one photograph from her childhood, and why the girl in the picture isn’t even her. She decides to explore the past and its... Read More

In 1940s Australia, a nine-year-old Aboriginal boy arrives in the dead of night at a remote monastery run by a renegade nun. The boy’s presence disturbs the delicately balanced world in this story... Read More

Eager to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary, Amritha, a video blogger, and her husband Kesav, a film producer, arrive in Sri Lanka from Mumbai to experience a mystical tour of historical... Read More

In a village plagued by kidnapping fears, the church announces the arrival of a miraculous Virgin Mary statue along with a grim announcement from the village security head, Nengsal, who warns “ of... Read More

The Prime Time Indian TV journalist, Ravish Kumar, is in trouble. Renowned for his fearless takedowns of the ruling establishment during his long-standing prime-time news slot, he faces mounting... Read More

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A small holiday house by the Baltic sea. The days are hot and it hasn’t rained in weeks. Four young people come together, friends old and new. As the parched forests around them begin to ignite, so... Read More

Bombay fishermen Rakesh and Ganesh are inheritors of the great Koli knowledge system—a way to harvest the sea by following the moon and the tides. Rakesh has kept faith in the traditional fishing... Read More

In the heart of Amar Colony, a dilapidated building, Meera seeks excitement amidst her pregnancy and a dull marriage, while her absent husband harbours his own secrets. Her young and idle neighbour,... Read More

With his father in prison and his brother abroad for work, young Rakib works as the lone housekeeper in an empty mansion belonging to Purna, a retired general whose family Rakib’s clan have served... Read More

Born in Tangier, Morocco, in 1980, Maryam Touzani began her career in journalism in London before returning to Morocco to specialise in North African cinema. She ventured into filmmaking with... Read More

When his wife sends him to rehab for his alcohol addiction without consent, Radha’s world shatters, fuelling his desperate escape plan. Loneliness and estrangement from his family follow as he... Read More

Akzhol, a new graduate of the orphanage, starts a new and independent life. He is convinced that his father is alive and begins to search for him. After meeting his neighbour Dimash, the two begin to... Read More

Through her child’s eyes, Patpro will go through three periods of the history of her indigenous people in the heart of the Brazilian forest. Tirelessly persecuted, but guided by their ancestral... Read More

Fallen Leaves tells the story of two lonely people who meet each other by chance in the Helsinki night and try to find the first and ultimate love of their lives. Their path towards this honourable... Read More

In rural central Kerala, Sony, a Catholic man in his late twenties, appears at first glance to be a benevolent and caring individual. However, beneath his public façade lies a hidden persona. As... Read More

In a small town torn by territorial disputes between two linguistic communities, Raghu, a radicalised journalist working for an online media outlet, becomes a mouthpiece for an extremist leader.... Read More

In 1990, 12-year-old Benny, a Native American boy from San Diego, is reluctantly sent to his Grandma Lorraine’s Navajo ranch in Arizona. Despite the language barrier and harsh living... Read More

When cardamom prices plummet in her village, it disrupts the once-stable life of nine-year-old Guras. To add to the chaos, her beloved pet dog disappears. Amidst the backdrop of a looming leopard... Read More

A woman in her early 40s is temporarily staying at her friend’s house, who is taking care of a cat. Simultaneously, an elderly man in his 70s, living alone, has recently lost his ageing cat.... Read More

A reluctant Thien must take the body of his sister-in-law, who died in a freak motorcycle accident in Saigon, and her five-year-old son Dao, who miraculously survived the crash, to their hometown in... Read More

Dasru and Vaano lead an anonymous life as migrant labourers on a Mumbai construction site with their infant daughter, Joram. The family’s world collides with Karma, a female tribal leader from... Read More

In the oceanside village of Iyi, the revered Mama Efe acts as an intermediary between the people and the all-powerful water deity Mami Wata. But when a young boy is lost to a virus, Efe’s devoted... Read More

In a village in rural India, a young determined girl, Savita, yearns for education and a bright future. However, as her farmer parents anxiously struggle to find a suitable match for her, societal... Read More

In 1940s Australia, a nine-year-old Aboriginal boy arrives in the dead of night at a remote monastery run by a renegade nun. The boy’s presence disturbs the delicately balanced world in this story... Read More

Eager to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary, Amritha, a video blogger, and her husband Kesav, a film producer, arrive in Sri Lanka from Mumbai to experience a mystical tour of historical... Read More

Hirayama seems utterly content with his simple life as a cleaner of toilets in Tokyo. Outside of his very structured everyday routine he enjoys his passion for music and books. And he loves trees and... Read More

In a village plagued by kidnapping fears, the church announces the arrival of a miraculous Virgin Mary statue along with a grim announcement from the village security head, Nengsal, who warns “ of... Read More

Glimpses of everyday life in Ladakh on a long summer evening. Through vignettes of daily life, landscapes, and wildlife, set entirely during the liminal blue hour, Ri paints a portrait of Ladakh as... Read More

1980. Southern Iran. The people of Abadan have been fighting an Iraqi siege. Among them is 14-year-old Omid, who has chosen to stay in the city with his grandfather, waiting for his elder brother to... Read More

In this animation feature, inspired by a feminist science-fiction story written in 1905 in Bengal, the protagonist, Inés, embarks on a journey through India searching for traces of Ladyland, a... Read More

Terrestrial Verses follows everyday people from all walks of life as they navigate the cultural, religious, and institutional constraints imposed on them by various social authorities, from school... Read More

Amidst loss and lockdowns, Tora’s husband Jaan, a loving father and kind neighbour, struggles to keep his small-town business afloat and grapples with uncertainty and restlessness. With a worldview... Read More

Set in Kalupur, a neighbourhood in the old city of Ahmedabad, this slice-of-life film follows the daily life of Razzak and his family through an observational lens. Razzak, an unemployed father of... Read More

In the city of Srinagar, Nargis searches for her missing husband, Manzoor, until she is forced to hopelessly return to her village home. With a little help from a local man Yaseen, she silently toils... Read More

Having spent the prime of his life in prison for a murder committed to avenge his father, Modan finally returns home. Modan’s brother has prospered in his absence, which leads to animosity between... Read More

Shakib is a homeless day labourer who never got over the loss of his wife and son in an earthquake years ago. Over the last couple of years, he has developed a relationship with a deaf and mute... Read More

On the run from an unspecified Eastern European country, two siblings, Kyona and Adriel, find themselves  separated from their parents in a small town that is plunged into darkness. Facing the path... Read More

In a uranium mining area of Jharkhand, India, a tribal couple cope with the loss of their daughter. For them, the land and forest are witness to their daughter’s memory. With great sensitivity and... Read More

Inspired by an image of a father and son travelling on a bike through a foggy winter morning, Dhuin tells the story of Pankaj, a small-town theatre actor with dreams of making it big in Mumbai. But... Read More

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... Read More

In the city of Varanasi, Rani, a feisty street dancer, works tirelessly to provide for her deaf daughter. Meanwhile, Shahdab, a weaver whose parents died in the Babri Masjid riots, befriends an... Read More

Mumtaz, a strong-willed makeup artist, passionate about her work, lives with her quiet, unemployed husband, Haider, in an extended joint family with her father-in-law. When Haider finds work as a... Read More

Amaia (Laia Costa) has just become a mother. Her partner is away from home for months and she feels overwhelmed, incapable of looking after her baby and going back to her job as a translator. She... Read More

Set in the crumbling city of Kolkata, Manikbabur Megh traces the story of Manik, a loner by nature and asocial by choice. Manik lives with his ailing father, who he cares for as part of his daily... Read More

Jorge leaves his family and his moto-taxi business in the suburbs of Lima to seek his fortune as a miner. He makes his way to the highest and most dangerous Andean gold mine in Peru. Lost under a... Read More

In the early 80s, Sero, a Kurdish boy, enrolls in school for the first time in an Arab border community in Syria. A new teacher has been employed by the school with the intention of turning the... Read More

Multi-hyphenate, multidisciplinary artist Saul Williams brings his unique dynamism to this Afrofuturist vision, a sci-fi punk musical that’s a visually wondrous amalgamation of themes, ideas and... Read More

One evening in the 1980s, Qiu Fu, a leading clown-role actor in 20th-century Sichuan opera, departs this world and must reluctantly leave for the Ghost City under the escort of two underworld... Read More

Anam Ahum, a Tangkhul from the hills of Manipur, journeys to Imphal City in the valley to meet with his daughter one last time before she leaves for Delhi in search of a new job. On the way, he... Read More

After the loss of her only daughter, Ela, a former actress, not only loses her identity as a mother but also the only reason to be with her husband. While trying to find a new identity for herself,... Read More

A middle-aged electrician named Pedro lives with his mother and his brother’s family in a rural community in the dense forests of Western Karnataka. A drunk and an outcast in his community,... Read More

A young couple, Priyanka and Sumit, having eloped to a metropolitan city during the Covid-19 pandemic, return to the security of their hometown in Darbhanga. While Priyanka, a strong-willed and... Read More

Rehana, an assistant professor at a medical college, struggles to keep the harmony between work and family while playing all the complex roles of teacher, doctor, sister, daughter, and mother. One... Read More

India, 1962. Recently  independent, the country is still class-bound and exploitative. Shankar is the indispensable servant on the estate of the parents of little Anjana and her brother. The ... Read More

1492. Travelling among the crew captained by Christopher Columbus are two men who should have been dead by now. They have managed to avoid their sad fate by signing up for this uncertain voyage to... Read More

Birdsong | Omi Zola Gupta, Sparsh Ahuja | United Kingdom, Laos | 2022 | 17 mins. | Hmong | Director attending Regard Silence | Mira El Silencio | Santiago Zermeño | México | 2022 | 29 mins. |... Read More

Inspired by Iranian cinema and the poetry of Forough Farrokhzad, a young Indian filmmaker journeys to Iran to witness how resistance becomes a daily act of survival in Iranian society. Despite... Read More

The essay film reflects on the life and work of the North American activist Angela Davis. The film is neither a biography nor a fictional narrative. Instead, Diawara’s footage, which is... Read More

Bawa’s Garden is a road movie in search of the works of renowned Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa. The film follows a protagonist scouring the island for the ‘lost’ garden of Lunuganga.... Read More

Through the discerning lens of a Bahujan feminist filmmaker operating within the upper-caste Indian film industry, the film delves deep into critical themes of liberty, equality, fraternity, social... Read More

Outside Kolkata, a few jute mills crank on, virtually unchanged since the industrial revolution. Powered by steam and sweat, work is a dance to the rhythms of the century-old machines. The Golden... Read More

After 24 years of absence, director A-Liang Elvis Lu returns home to his family in a rural area of southwestern Taiwan. His elder brother is a psychic that communicates Taoist deities’ career... Read More

I am Sirat features a transgender woman who is caught between duty and self-determination. As Aman, she lives in New Delhi with her widowed mother as a son, fulfilling responsibilities in the... Read More

Innocence tackles the issue of militarisation and its impact on the lives of young Israeli people who are forced to serve against their own identity and values. Through a narration based on the... Read More

“​Hands destined to mould a thing of beauty​”. Thus wrote James Cousins, eminent writer, of a young Sikh potter he met in Japan in 1922. The film celebrates the life and legacy of... Read More

Young Moroccan filmmaker, Asmae el Moudir, wants to know why she only has one photograph from her childhood, and why the girl in the picture isn’t even her. She decides to explore the past and its... Read More

In October 2019, an unforeseen revolution ignited a social upheaval. Over one and a half million individuals took to the streets of Santiago, demanding increased democracy, improved living standards,... Read More

Amidst the migration of their friends and neighbours for the winter, two widows, Ratima and Kalima, choose to remain behind as caretakers of their empty village. Isolated and snowbound for a hundred... Read More

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a collective of indigenous artists belonging to India’s ‘ex-criminal’ De-notified Tribes and associated with Budhan Theatre, decided to produce... Read More

A historical overview of India’s coercive Family Planning programme and its effect on women. The film examines this issue from the point of view of women themselves, those who were pushed to... Read More

With Norway’s dizzyingly beautiful mountain landscapes as its monumental backdrop, Olin embarks on an existential journey with her own ageing parents as the human yardstick within the vast... Read More

In his role as a defence lawyer at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Krispus Ayena faces a profound ethical dilemma: Can an individual be both an executioner and a victim? Ayena’s... Read More

While The Green Grass Grows is an audio-visual, trance-like, epic diary that looks at the miracles contained in everyday things and occurrences. Peter Mettler follows and weaves, with his unique... Read More

The Prime Time Indian TV journalist, Ravish Kumar, is in trouble. Renowned for his fearless takedowns of the ruling establishment during his long-standing prime-time news slot, he faces mounting... Read More

In a milieu challenging dominant, exclusivist Hindu caste notions, Anand grew up surrounded by the universalist idea of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” – the belief that the world is one... Read More

In one of the world’s most populated cities, two brothers – Nadeem and Saud – devote their lives to the quixotic effort of protecting the black kite, a majestic bird of prey essential to the... Read More

Three young women from Hong Kong, Chile and Uganda are at the centre of a seismic political transition. Dear Future Children follows Rayen’s demonstrations for social justice in Chile, Pepper’s... Read More

On 11 August 1999, most of Europe was engrossed in the total solar eclipse, which momentarily enveloped the earth in darkness. But in Serbia, people were busy barricading themselves in their homes... Read More

In March 2002, a state TV station in China is hijacked by members of outlawed spiritual group Falun Gong. Their goal is to counter the government narrative about their practice. In the aftermath,... Read More

In the first nine years of his pontificate, Pope Francis made 37 trips visiting 53 countries, focusing on issues most important to him – poverty, migration, the environment, solidarity and war.... Read More

Enthralling and intimate, director Daniel Roher’s Navalny unfolds with the pace of a thriller as it follows Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in his quest to identify the men who poisoned... Read More

L is a university student studying in India who writes letters to her estranged lover. Blurring lines between reality and fiction, dreams, memories, fantasies and anxieties, A Night Of Knowing... Read More

Throughout the 1970s, the journalist Elías Barahona, a.k.a. The Mole, infiltrated the heart of one of the most repressive governments in Guatemala. Leading a dangerous double life, he provided... Read More

In 1948, at the London Olympics, post-Partition independent India defeats England – their erstwhile coloniser – in the hockey tournament to win the gold medal. Sixty years later, Nandy Singh, a... Read More

Terra Femme is an essay film comprised of amateur travelogues filmed by women in the 1920s-1950s. The films present a new type of traveller; no longer a male seeker of conquests, she might be a... Read More

The Territory provides an immersive on-the-ground look at the tireless fight of the indigenous Uru-eu-wau-wau people of the Brazilian Amazon against the encroaching deforestation brought on by... Read More

Most of us think of death as something clear-cut, and that medical science has it neatly figured out. This feature documentary explodes such assumptions through its exploration of a phenomenon that... Read More

Being the doppelganger of a film star isn’t the same as being a star. The lookalike carries the “Urf” or the “also known as” as a stamp  forever. In the alleys of the Hindi... Read More

Being present is all that matters in the end. A team of counsellors, nurses and doctors work for a palliative care organisation in New Delhi. Within 48 hours of receiving a call through their... Read More

Out of a cluttered news landscape dominated by men, emerges India’s only newspaper led by Dalit women. Armed with smartphones, wit and tenacity, Chief Reporter Meera and her journalists break... Read More

Shera | Arun Fulara | India | 2023 | 20 mins. | Kumaoni  | Director attending Morchang | Chandradeep Singh Rathore | India | 2023 | 24 mins. | Rajasthani | Director attending Roads | Sadak | Daanish... Read More

Manish is a talented and athletic street dancer from Mumbai who dreams of becoming a professional against the wishes of his struggling parents who have moved to the big city from a small village in... Read More

In a remote Malabar village, the enigmatic figure of Kummatty looms large in folklore. To the village’s children, he’s both a bogeyman and a magician. One day, Kummatty materialises with... Read More

When their home in Munich is bombed during World War II, Anna and her son Felix seek sanctuary in Anna’s childhood village in Bavaria. Her neighbour, Feik, was Anna’s old schoolfriend and is now... Read More

Dostojee, set in the aftermath of the the Babri Masjid demolition and the Bombay bombings, tells the story of a friendship between two boys who belong to conflicting religious communities. The boys,... Read More

In this innovative and trailblazing documentary, Director Rasmussen tells the true story of his close friend, Amin, an Afghan refugee who shares his experiences for the first time on film. Made with... Read More

Kulfi is the story of Ganya, a kid from a remote place, who desires to eat an ice-cream but cannot afford to buy it. Will his fortune allow him to eat that kulfi?

In the timeless Rajasthan desert, a nomadic family of musicians led by young Sarwar’s father earns whatever little money and water people can spare in exchange. Frustrated yet hopeful of his... Read More

A teenage boy wants to follow his passion, but lives in a family that does not support his ambitions. Afraid to express his true self because of the pressures, he finds the only space in the house... Read More

In a quaint Himalayan village, an ambitious 11-year-old dreams of becoming an astronaut, banking on a new road for better education. When corruption sabotages the road, she and her friends hatch a... Read More

As Monu’s family readies to leave their Himalayan village, he longs to see the legendary leopard, Shera, which his friend Raju endeavors to make possible before their departure.

A family of three, Leela, Raju and their son Abbu live in a small beautiful village deep in the lower Himalayas. Abbu struggles with his secret gender identity while Raju is stricken by loss and... Read More

Set in the late 1990s, in the pre-mobile-phone era, All India Rank is a slice-of-life dramedy about 17-year old Vivek who is sent away from home to a prep-school to study for the highly competitive... Read More

Two brothers make a living performing Bollywood songs, dressed as dinosaurs. As the pandemic encroaches on their business, their patience and rations slowly run... Read More

When Zoya finds out that her sister Zara has gone missing during the pandemic, she isn’t disturbed. Instead, she’s holding on to a secret. Bad Egg is an exploration of and testament to the... Read More

While COVID-19 continues to spread, the film takes us through some of the heart-wrenching details of the pandemic’s toll on the lives of young individuals, juxtaposing their internal turmoil with... Read More

Tucked away in the hills of Dharamshala, Café illiterati was a quiet café often visited by travellers and residents who had a special affection for it. The film captures the final days of the café... Read More

Dante Katha, meaning oral storytellingí in Nepali, is an experimental mixed-media retelling of folktales, set in the landscapes of Darjeeling. Told by a young girl whose brother has recently gone... Read More

The Daughter, based on real events and a collection of unpublished poems, is the story of a young woman in an Indian town under curfew. She sets out in search of a man who can help her carry out an... Read More

Groups of Tibetan immigrants work in a Canadian laundry facility, mostly strangers to each other, but all part of a broader wave of Tibetan immigration that took place roughly between 2011 and 2017.... Read More

Mohan writes dictionaries. It takes him only seven days to learn a new language. One afternoon, having developed a bad stomach, he decides to consult a... Read More

Three children in Mumbai’s fishing ghettos have to deal with conflict when one child’s aspirations threaten the daily games of the... Read More

Dog is a look into the sly and humorous paradoxes of modern-day Iran. A mullah on the road, a snack of fried chicken, a divination that goes wrong, and an “unclean” dog, put it all into... Read More

Fallen Mangoes explores the inner turmoil of the residents of an old age home in a remote village in Maharashtra, India, who have been left there by their families and loved ones. Unable to live... Read More

In the nomadic regions of Ladakh, a child, passionate about football, lives with his grandmother who knows nothing of the sport. The two find common ground in unexpected... Read More

Gopi Siddi is a middle-aged storyteller from the Siddi tribe, descendents of the African diaspora in South India. Drawing from oral tradition, Gopi wants to get her stories self-published. But before... Read More

I Am Lawrence Wilson follows the story of 76-year-old Lawrence Wilson, a stand-up comedian, singer, dancer and actor. He is a cinephile who actively participated in the long-standing tradition of... Read More

When a young teacher tries to resolve a primary student’s involvement in an ugly incident, things go disastrously wrong. Will he continue to repent or be able to forgive... Read More

An anthology of five short films by Indian women filmmakers, entirely shot on iPhones with a one-month production time, that came out of an ‘Art of Filmmaking’ workshop mentored by Mohsen... Read More

At a preview theatre, a filmmaker waits in the hope of getting his sci-fi film certified with ‘no cuts’ by the conservative all-male jury of the Indian Censor Board. The jury finds a... Read More

Two young mothers, Miriam and Shoby, meet with 12-year-old Lalanna whose manner unwittingly unsettles the two women. They decide to undertake deceptively small measures to teach the young girl a... Read More

The lives of a young couple are dominated by a List, which they follow to the T. The two are caught in a vicious loop of mundanity with no way out. An unpredictable outburst results in a conflict... Read More

Lullabies are the only method through which a mother is able to calm her 12-year-old daughter. However, once the lullaby ends and the little girl comes to her senses, reality seems to be far more... Read More

Moments before their arranged marriage is about to take place, the groom comes out to his bride-to-be and confides to her that he secretly cross... Read More

Underneath its touristy facade, hides a very quaint version of Goan life. Sleepy balcaos, pushy fish-mongers, and pilot bikes flitting on scorching afternoons – the mix of traditions and an... Read More

Zara, a schoolgirl in Karachi, shares a sensual dance video with her virtual boyfriend, who then blackmails her. Caught between his manipulative behaviour and the desire to experience love on her own... Read More

May 1992. Karachi is trapped in unrest owing to the state-sanctioned “Operation”. Abdul Aziz Ansari’s son has not returned home. A knock on his door in the dead of night leads him and his... Read More

Kishan works as a live-in servant and nurse to 75-year-old Babuji. When Babuji’s health improves, he goes to live with his family, and leaves Kishan to deal with a newfound... Read More

Alok is involved in a land dispute with a violent neighbour. Alok has applied for a gun licence in order to defend himself. His son finds the gun and gets into trouble at school after firing a bullet... Read More

Following the sudden and unimaginable loss of his wife during the 2011 tsunami in Northern Japan, a man learns to scuba dive. His search for her – and for solace from grief – continues under the... Read More

A missing case that links the lives of four people takes the form of an incident that inflicts unrelenting guilt upon one... Read More

56-year-old Perianayaki, a Sri Lankan immigrant, works in a neighbourhood supermarket in New Zealand. She struggles with blending in because she cannot speak English and is forced to come to terms... Read More

A husband realises that his body responds to men the way other men’s bodies respond to women. A wife realises that she has always let other people dictate how she behaves. As the couple finds... Read More

Raat: Night Time In Small Town India encapsulates the experiences and events of the night in UP, Rajasthan and Jharkhand. Men and women from the three states set forth, armed with a camera to witness... Read More

Raavi, a 73-year-old woman, is locked in her own house, and consumed by fear and uncertainty. Fragments of memories from a distant past float from her prison while she wallows in the anguish of her... Read More

Mehboob Khan stayed behind during Partition and watched his whole family immigrate to Pakistan. They kept in touch through handwritten letters but these eventually stopped. His grandson wants to... Read More

When her mother makes a comment about her dark skin, Hema is confronted with the chasm between who she is and who society demands her to be. The film follows an intimate story of the complexities of... Read More

Attempting to inherit the broken pieces of a culture defined by partition, a son attempts to make ‘sarson ka saag’, a popular Punjabi delicacy. He recreates his mother’s movements, and through... Read More

Tushar is leaving to study in a faraway university. His dog has just died and his grandmother is losing her memory. His father, burdened by his failing mango business, decides to send her to an old... Read More

Inti, Jai, and Pauline are in search of a vacant space on the outskirts of Paris; a rift through which the “Trouble Generation” they embody can slip, between the laws of the old world and the... Read More

Spirit of the Forest is an ecological fairytale set in the endemic nutmeg swamps of southern India. A little girl stumbles into a sacred grove near her village and in doing so disturbs the spirit of... Read More

A mother, trapped in the comfort of memory and mourning, confronts her grief when she is invited to the wedding of her late son’s childhood... Read More

Following a sexual transgression inflicted upon a pubescent boy by an older teenage boy, the two oscillate between rage and longing, fear and denial, while on a beach vacation with their... Read More

In the cast-off capital of Panipat in North India, the history of fabric is closely woven with that of its immigrants. A young textile worker recounts the city’s modern history, which was formerly... Read More

Made to feel like a failure at home and work, Ismat – an undocumented single mother and retail worker in Queens, NY – is a volcano waiting to erupt. One night, she secretly witnesses an incident... Read More

You Tibetan puts forth a stimulating question, the answer to which we often take for granted. If Tibet were liberated tomorrow, would the Tibetan diaspora find its way back? Is it home they would... Read More

Birdsong explores the dying whistling traditions of Laos’ Hmong people, focusing on three individuals from Long Lan village. The film highlights the collision of this ancient linguistic practice... Read More

Chadariya unearths the individual and collective experiences of young unmarried Indian women facing the pain and violence of abortion. Through a multi-voiced narrative, it weaves intergenerational... Read More

Clement Town draws inspiration from a secluded town in modern Uttarakhand, India, allegedly built by local intelligence agents for Taiwan during the Cold War. The film weaves together staged... Read More

Twelve case workers who have been working on cases of domestic violence over years, traveling to remote corners of Bundelkhand, create a lexicon of words often used by women on the field. The film... Read More

Five years old Yang spends an afternoon with his mother on a shopping trip. When he throws a tantrum after feeling neglected, she decides to punish him by walking away. A seemingly harmless... Read More

In the West African republic of Benin, a family recounts their ancestor’s first encounter with Europeans in 1548 to a European film crew. As they share their version of history, including... Read More

If dreams had eyes of their own, would they see reality for what it is? A queer desire transcends from a night’s dream to the day’s reality when the filmmaker starts filming her everyday.... Read More

Set in the 1990s, a young man reminisces memories of a conversation with his mother. On returning to the village where he grew up he discovers how once a silent village distant from the hustle and... Read More

Hello Guyzz! provides a window into modern India, where cheap internet and dreams of stardom coexist with class, caste, and gender disparities. Sumita, the central figure, leverages social media to... Read More

Shot on mobile phone cameras in western Uttar Pradesh, In Between Us seeks to explore the personal positions of two women—Rajkumari, a social activist, and Ruchika, a documentary filmmaker and... Read More

A recurring mysterious sound from the Himalayan mountains is only heard by two curious young shepherds. Unable to convince the villagers of the eerie nature of this sound, they embark on a journey... Read More

An estranged migrant working-class couple embarks on a deeply emotional journey to find friendship in one another as they grapple with the loss of their daughter to an ill-fated custom.

Set in rural India, two sisters Malwa and Khushan live with their grandmother. Navigating sexuality and attraction in their adolescent years, Khushan always looks up to Malwa for her outspoken nature... Read More

During the peak of the 2020 lockdown, millions of Indian migrant workers were forced to walk thousands of miles back to their villages from big cities. The mother of a young migrant laborer awaits... Read More

A bull flees from his herd. The moon goes missing from the sky. The bull runs across this new moonless world, looking for its limit. Instead, he finds different people and their many endeavors and in... Read More

Monographs is a project born during the COVID-19 pandemic, serving as a critical platform for discourse on moving images beyond the confines of cinema. The second edition of Monographs, guided by... Read More

Phuntsho Tshering, Bhutan’s sole glaciologist, embarks on perilous journeys through sacred mountains to measure glaciers threatened by climate change. His 11-year-old daughter, Yangchen, finds... Read More

A 13-year-old girl and a 30-something man are brought to a police station in Mumbai in the middle of the night by two strangers. Amidst questionable motives and unreliable narrators, a frustrated... Read More

A stranger arrives in a town called Mipo: here, urban development is accelerating the gentrification of an old fishing village located on the edge of Haeundae Beach, in Busan city, South Korea.

An impoverished couple crosses the Himalayas on foot to a more prosperous village, where they are tasked with gathering leaves and chopping wood of poplar trees. The arrangement takes an unexpected... Read More

A diverse group of deaf people explore the Mexican Sign Language through a scenic lab of poetic creation.

Amidst the rise of saffronisation among Indian youth, Saleel, a queer content creator works for the extremist Vinchu Sena party. When tasked with a destructive mission against an author, a mistaken... Read More

Shabnam delves into the discomfort of colonial history through Bengali language, creating a time gap between sound and text, unearthing hidden narratives and archival images to expose inequality.

Sainath, 25, is a film student in Pune, India and his grandmother, Sunila, 80, lives far away in the village of Merces in Goa, India. They share a ‘film letter’ with each other.

In a remote Himalayan village in Bhutan, 13-year-old deaf girl Deki takes on household responsibilities in the absence of a mother, but her world shatters when she experiences her first menstruation.... Read More

An elderly man, recently arrived in a new and unfamiliar European city, confronts the isolation of his new apartment by creating his own soundscapes to recreate what is familiar and reassuring.

A man who works as a security guard in an apartment complex goes about his day, while the residents who live there express their views on caste, identity, and their own social standing. But actions... Read More

A little Kurdish girl tries to put a smile back on her grandmother’s face after the disappearance of her television, her only window into the world.

At the mercy of the dentist’s chair, the protagonist cannot escape the confrontation with pain and the dregs of the miserable human condition. To distract himself, he takes refuge in a... Read More

Big boobs vs. small boobs, who has it worse? A group of women, over a drink, discusses in what ways being a part of a conservative society affects how we feel about our own breasts, which at the end... Read More

Bin and Yuan are siblings. When they’re not working, they share a small apartment in Marseille. This is their haven, a space where they can rest. Here they can be connected to the outside world at... Read More

Students of a film institute tread through elusive memories and a long lost time, as they try to find meaning in the aftermath of a student’s absence.

Sonam, 50, embarks on a journey to Nepal’s high-altitude monasteries to honor his deceased wife, whose funeral he didn’t attend, reuniting with his estranged son Karma whom he is seeing for... Read More

In Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, a woman walks into a chadari store in Kabul to buy her first full-body veil and faces an uncertain future.

Last Days of Summer | Stenzin Tankyong | India, France | 2023 | 15 mins. | Ladakhi (Changskat) | Director attending Mountain Man | Gangri Gi Min | Arun Bhatarai | Bhutan | 2022 | 22 mins. |... Read More

Last year, DIFF launched Filmlab South Asia – a workshop for emerging producer- director teams – in partnership with Festival 3 Continents’ Produire au Sud (PAS). DIFF is excited to host... Read More

Is the short film a stepping stone to feature films, a calling card to showcase one’s potential in the hope of moving up the so-called ladder to more serious filmmaking? Is it the poor cousin,... Read More

For a filmmaker, getting a rejection from a film festival is a heart-wrenching blow. Multiple rejections can be fatal in undermining confidence and self-worth, especially for someone starting out on... Read More

Across the breadth of the Himalaya, from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh, including Nepal and Bhutan, a cinematic churning is becoming apparent as a new generation of filmmakers emerges, determined to... Read More

Like in many parts of the world, the advent of digital technology and the democratisation of cinema production has led to an explosion of independent filmmaking in India. No longer dependent on the... Read More

Documentaries have come a long way from their origins as being factual and objective representations of true events, although from their inception, questions have been raised about their authenticity... Read More

Guneet Monga burst onto the filmmaking stage as a young, unknown, outsider woman who pulled the rug from under the entrenched preconceptions of a primarily male-dominated industry and proved against... Read More

Over the past decade, Pa. Ranjith has emerged as one of the foremost and revolutionary voices in Tamil cinema. By focusing directly on anti-caste politics, his films have challenged the hegemonic and... Read More

The Indian film industry is perhaps the only one in the world that requires both screenwriting and lyrical capabilities. The art of storytelling for the screen requires, not only characters and... Read More

In this wide-ranging talk, celebrated filmmaker Anurag Kashyap ruminates on his journey as a filmmaker; from hard-core cineaste, to darling of the indie film scene, to director of big-budget movies.... Read More

When Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh set out to make a film on a news organization led by Dalit women (Khabar Lahariya) transitioning from print to digital news-making, in the backdrop of one of... Read More

Darbhanga is known as the heart of Mithila and a formidable seat of music, literature, art and culture, but it has rarely been associated with films, other than being known as the home to popular... Read More

A Dream Dreaming a Dream Dreaming is a real-time, infinitely changing animation, always similar but also always generated anew, of a dreaming panther roaming the forest. Always experienced... Read More

Mumbai-based Harkat Studios conducts Celluloid Kaarigar, a beginner’s workshop to experimenting with 16mm celluloid film. The workshop takes selected participants through the entire process of... Read More