This year was special for South Asia at the Cannes Film Festival, despite no Indian feature films being in the official selection. We only had Mehar Malhotra’s short film Shadows of the Moonless Nights in the La Cinef section, and the restored version of John Abraham’s Amma Ariyan (Report to Mother, 1985) in the Cannes Classics.Nepal beat us to the awards, with Abinash Bikram Shah’s Elephants in the Fog winning the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize, and the Best Sound Creation Award. The film, set in a feisty kinnar or transgender community living on the edge of a forest with wild elephants, humanises an often despised community. I was thrilled to note that Nepali-American designer Prabal Gurung created custom couture for the spirited transgender cast. It always helps to have a veteran designer guide first-timers on the red carpet.
Director Abinash Bikram Shah and the cast of Elephants in the Fog, Pushpa Thing Lama, Saha Din Miya, Jasmine Bishwokarma, and Aliz Ghimire
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Meanwhile, from the Indian segment it was a proud moment to see Payal Kapadia — whose film, All We Imagine as Light, won the Grand Prix at Cannes two years ago — as president of the Semaine de la Critique/Critics’ Week. Very few in India have had this honour, and it made me recall my time as a Critics’ Week jury member in 2023. (Kapadia and I are the only Indians to have been invited to this jury in the last five years, and perhaps even longer.)
