Exciting South Asian line-up at Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles

Abdullah Mohammad Saad's 'Rehana' to head IFFLA's new Spotlight on South Asian content

Photo courtesy Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles

Photo courtesy Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles

The 2022 Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA), scheduled to be held from April 28 to May 1, announced its official selections line-up. The 20th annual edition of the internationally acclaimed film festival, which returns to in-person screenings and events this year, will showcase 26 films (10 features and 16 shorts).

IFFLA's beloved alum Pan Nalin's "Last Film Show," a celebration of the love of cinema through the story of a boy who aims to open a theatre with his friends, will have a Gala presentation this year. The film debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival apart from travelling to film festivals worldwide.

However, the highlight of this year's IFFLA is the introduction of "Spotlight on South Asia," which aims to showcase groundbreaking new work coming out of the South Asian subcontinent and its diasporas.

The section will be opened by Abdullah Mohammad Saad's psychological thriller "Rehana" (Rehana Maryam Noor). The film revolves around a professor and single mother who struggles to bring justice to a male colleague accused of sexually assaulting a student. "Rehana" was the first film from Bangladesh to compete in Cannes' Un Certain Regard.

"It all started with an image of a stubborn woman," said Saad speaking to DH. "I didn't set out to make a statement. My only intention is to investigate the complexity of human nature and try to understand and capture it as much as I can. I hope Rehana raises some questions that encourage our audience to think and feel something."

IFFLA would also have a shorts program with work from the finest emerging auteurs from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Nepal.

"IFFLA's legacy has been to discover and nurture emerging talent of South Asian descent," said IFFLA Executive Director Christina Marouda to DH. "Our goal is to support and uplift these exciting, under-represented voices who have already proved their talent with at least one successful project and help them advance their storytelling career to the next level."

Saad, too, is elated that South Asian filmmakers are finally getting their due on the global stage.

"Bhutanese film "Lunana" (2019) is the greatest example," he said. "The Oscar nomination for the film says a lot about the genuine and passionate effort of South Asian Filmmakers who keep making films despite so many obstacles."

Meanwhile, Anmol Sidhu's "Jaggi," a story about a schoolboy in rural Punjab who faces toxic masculinity and sexual abuse when peers at his high school consider him to be gay, is all set to have a world premiere at IFFLA 2022.

Faraz Ali's "Shoebox" and Natesh Hegde's "Pedro" will have their North American premieres. "Shoebox" is a coming-of-age story about a young woman and her father's struggle to keep the family's single-screen movie theatre operating. Pedro revolves around a taciturn electrician outcasted by society after becoming involved in a drunken incident.

The main short films programme has 11 exceptional voices—of which eight are women—telling remarkable stories across a range of genres and formats, including queer dramas, pandemic and futuristic satires, psychological horror, experimental, and hybrid documentaries as diasporic comedies.

Of these four are World Premieres that are expected to make waves, including Megha Ramaswamy's "Lalanna's Song," co-produced by Guneet Monga, Ambiecka Pandit's coming-of-age drama "Under the Water," produced by Vikramaditya Motwane, "Adventures of Faisal Rehman" by Mir Ijlal Shaani; and Varun Chopra's documentary "Holy Cowboys."

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