Adhiraj Kashyap’s film gets premiered at International Short Film Festival Oberhausen
Guwahati, May 4: ‘In the Lap of the Mountain’, a short film by Adhiraj Kashyap of Guwahati had its world premiere at the 69th edition of the prestigious International Short Film Festival Oberhausen recently.
The film was in the International Competition section, making it the only Indian film this year. The festival concluded on May 1.
"It's a matter of great pride for me and the entire team to have our film premiered at such a prestigious film festival. Considering the fact that it is the only Indian presence this year at the festival, it also feels good to represent the country and Indian Cinema in some way or the other on an international stage,” Adhiraj told The Assam Tribune.
The International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, founded in 1954, is one of the oldest short film festivals in the world. Held in Oberhausen, it is one of the major international platforms for the short form.
For the filmmaker, it’s an honour and confidence booster to see his film being screened at this one of the oldest film festivals of the world.
“Usually film programmers, curators, critics and film enthusiasts from all over the world are always involved with such prestigious film festivals and this gives our film an opportunity to be seen and discussed at a global platform, which helps the film reach an audience it otherwise wouldn't have. Film festivals shouldn't be a marker of the ‘quality’ of any film according to me; but getting screened at such prestigious and old film festivals is a huge boost for the confidence of young filmmakers like me," Adhiraj reckoned.
After graduating in physics, Adhiraj worked as an assistant director in several projects both documentaries and features. Now, he is a student of direction and screenplay writing at the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune.
The synopsis of the film: Due to the caste dynamics and hierarchy prevailing in Golegaon (a village in Maharashtra) as in the rest of the country, the Adivasi people in the village struggle to hold onto their traditions and assert their own individual identity as a community in the very place that has belonged to them for generations.
