Cannes Film Festival 2021: India at the French Riviera

The prestigious Cannes Film Festival is back with its 74th edition after the cancelation of the festival in 2020 due to COVID-19. The festival has returned to its red-carpet glory with movie stars, fans with iPhones and fully vaccinated, tested international press at the opening night premiere.

Talking about the film, India may not have secured a position in the Competition and Un Certain Regard official sections, but two of its movies featured in the sidebars this year are already making a buzz.

The first film is ‘Invisible Demons’ that makes the Cannes debut for director Rahul Jain. The 70-minute documentary talks about the impact of climate change, global warming, and pollution on the lives and health of millions of New Delhi residents. The documentary will premiere on 12 July in the Cinema for the Climate section.

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Jain’s first film was the critically-acclaimed feature ‘Machines’, which delved into the human consequences of industrialization. According to a report by National Herald, ‘Invisible Demons’ was researched and written within 100 days in 2018 and shot over 100 days through 2019.

The second film is Payal Kapadia’s ‘A Night of Knowing Nothing’ that will have its premiere in Quinzaine des Realisateurs (Directors’ Fortnight) and it’s also competing for the Camera D’Or award. 

The film follows a university student from India writing letters to her estranged lover. National Herald quotes the official synopsis as stating, “Through these letters, we get a glimpse into the drastic changes taking place around her.”

“Merging reality with fiction, dreams, memories, fantasies and anxieties, an amorphous narrative unfolds,” the synopsis adds.

Another film that is making buzz is ‘Eka. While technically not a part of the film festival, Suman Sen’s debut feature ‘Eka’ has been selected for La Fabrique Cinéma de l’Institutfrançais 2021, a programme curated for young filmmakers from emerging countries to network with agents and distributors across the world during Cannes.

The socio-political drama is set in Kolkata and centres around the spirit of resistance of the common man.

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Apart from this, India is also participating through the Virtual India Pavilion. The focus of the event will be celebrating the centenary year of the legendary filmmaker, Satyajit Ray, promoting India as an important shooting destination for the world cinema and co-production between Indian filmmakers and their global counterparts. The focus will also be on celebrating India @ 75.

The Minister of Information & Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar inaugrated the virtual ‘India Pavilion’ at Cannes Film Market on July 6.