Kirti Kulhari’s first feature as a producer, “Kinaare” (“Shores”), will premiere at the 15th Dharamshala International Film Festival (DIFF), which will open with Rima Das’ Berlin-awarded “Not a Hero.”
The festival will run Oct. 29–Nov. 1 at the Tibetan Children’s Village in Upper Dharamshala, with an online edition to follow Nov. 2–9.
Kulhari produced the film through her banner Kintsukuroi Films, with Abhishek Koka and Maansi Guptey as co-producers.
Siddhartha said every actor hopes for a script that values the written word and also pushes them to explore the spaces between the words. “And with ‘Kinaare,’ I got to do that as an actor. I feel ‘Kinaare’ has such a universal theme that everybody who sees it will definitely be touched, be moved and be slightly changed from within after the experience,” he said.
The film’s crew includes cinematographer Arjun Sundaram, composer Mohan Kannan, editor Bakul Matiyani and sound designer Sanjay Chaturvedi.
“Not a Hero,” an India-Singapore co-production, will have its South Asia premiere as the festival’s opening night film. It debuted at the Berlinale earlier this year, where it took a Crystal Bear Special Mention in the Generation Kplus strand, and later won best indie film at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne. It has also played Zlín, Zurich and Busan.
Das is known for “Village Rockstars,” “Bulbul Can Sing,” “Tora’s Husband” and “Village Rockstars 2.” Her films have screened at more than 150 festivals and collected over 75 awards.
They join titles from the festival’s initial lineup, among them Gurvinder Singh’s Locarno title, India-France co-production “Rehmat,” which weaves together three stories set in present-day Punjab; “Termite,” a short set in 1990s Old Delhi that marks the first fiction film from Oscar-nominated documentarian Shaunak Sen; and Oliver Laxe’s Cannes-winning “Sirāt.”
The first wave also includes Sompot Chidgasornpongse’s Cannes-debuting Thai family pilgrimage drama “9 Temples to Heaven,” Sara Dosa’s Iceland-set “Time and Water,” R. Gowtham’s Berlin-bowing grief drama “Members of the Problematic Family” and Dennis Harvey and Lars Lovén’s Irish folk music documentary “Celtic Utopia.” Samreen Farooqui and Shabani Hassanwalia’s documentary “The Ordinary Star” follows Nawazuddin Siddiqui as he studies the real-life occupant of the room he would use while shooting “Star,” Dibakar Banerjee’s segment in the 2013 anthology “Bombay Talkies.”
DIFF was founded by filmmakers Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam. This year’s edition will also run its fellowship program, with seven fellows mentored by Bhutanese director Dechen Roder and Indian independent filmmakers Umesh Kulkarni and Dominic Sangma.
