500 anni fa la nazione di Kumandra univa popoli differenti sotto il pacifico presidio dei Draghi. Finché i Druun, entità malvagie, non si sono diffusi tra gli uomini, agevolati dalla loro cupidigia e discordia, finendo per trasformare ogni forma vivente in pietra. Solo il sacrificio dei Draghi permise all'umanità di salvarsi: il segreto del loro potere è rimasto racchiuso in una gemma magica, unica arma di difesa contro i Druun. Oggi Kumandra non esiste più, divisa tra nazioni belligeranti, che corrispondono ad altrettante "parti" del drago: Zanna, Artiglio, Cuore, Dorso e Coda. Raya, principessa di Cuore, prova a tendere la mano verso Namaari, giovane figlia della regina di Zanna, ma la fiducia in quest'ultima porterà a una terribile disgrazia e al ritorno dei Druun.
Una storia d’amore apparentemente perfetta diventa un incubo quando una madre si convince che il nuovo fidanzato della figlia ha un collegamento oscuro con il suo passato…
“After So Long // बरसों बाद” is a visual poetry set in Mumbai (India) and voiced by Simha and their parents to symbolise their connection with each other; a walkabout through time and memories. Directed by Varsha Panikar, the film takes inspiration from vintage-home-movie culture to create a contemplative and nostalgic vignette of an artist’s spiritual journey out of the darkness and into the light.
Amidst moving homes, a superstitious Indian American girl struggles to bury her pet bird in fear of it haunting her.
After losing his innocence, his best friend, and the love of his adolescence, this coming-of-age gangster drama follows Harman in an hour of his night within a new life of violence.
"...Or Die”, directed by Gregory Bonsignore and John Petaja, satirizes the obstacles today's South Asian Hollywood actors have to deal with.
A musical, visual journey. Recorded and filmed on location, it resurrects ancient and forgotten folk music from Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia, Maldives, India and Myanmar. The experience is brought to life for a contemporary audience through a minimalist orchestration of modern electronic waves and flows, thereby preserving the integrity of the music. The musicians come primarily from the coastal communities, towns and villages practically wiped of the world map by the Tsunami of December 26, 2004. It's beauty lies in it's purity and simplicity, a non-judgmental point of view. For the international team who came together, Laya Project is a personal and collective tribute to the resilience of the human spirit.
Using Varsha Panikar's poetry series by the same name, Bodies Of Desire is a sensual celebration of genderless love and desire, inspired by the poet's lived reality. One of the #FiveFilmsForFreedom 2021.
Aarya leaves her family in the city to pursue her passion for the arts. She is gifted a red scarf, and is haunted by a Churail; a demonic and malevolent South Asian Witch.
It's an ordinary winter's day when disillusioned Police Inspector Azaad Singh is tasked with delivering a very important file to his superior. Traversing expanses of rural and urban Punjab along the way, he reckons with the state's past and present realities, and faces an untimely existential crisis as a result.
A sensitive heart-warming story of an Indian transman's acceptance, by himself and his family. Merlin, born as a girl, felt right from his childhood that he was trapped in the wrong gender.
When a new father suddenly loses his own dad, an opportunity to travel back in time for an evening gives him a chance to end things on a better note.
When a mysterious person gatecrashes Madhav and Sufi's wedding, the couple are forced to face past secrets and reevaluate their definitions of what makes a family.
A seemingly uneducated and unemployed individual is offered to kill a stranger's wife, as brutally as possible.
Mater Mortis is a short narrative film that asks what the limits of family bonds are under the weight of illness. Rajan must care for his mother, now afflicted with a condition that makes her the living dead. Relations between Rajan and his father fray as tensions rise to a head in this meditation on family, disease, and the right to life or death.
This documentary explores the history of Canada’s first major migration of non-European and non-white refugees who arrived in 1972 when Ugandan President Idi Amin expelled all South Asians from the country. Their story of struggle and hope became part of Canada’s conversations about refugees and cultural pluralism, and informed the Canadian response to future refugee movements.
A comedy-adventure short film about three friends who decide to embark on the most impossible adventure in Melbourne...to find the best dumplings.
In the wake of their Amma's deteriorating health, estranged brothers Rajesh and Shiva reunite, only to clash over BREATHE, an app offering to erase painful memories from their brains. Rajesh, a realist, and Shiva, a BREATHE addict, grapple with divergent approaches to coping. Against the backdrop of a society seduced by memory erasure, their battle becomes a poignant exploration of family, culture, technology, and the human spirit's resilience.
Juxtaposing the east and west, Elisai is a south Indian story set in London. A dysphoric teenager, Elisai and her idealist mother, Amalie grieve the loss of Elisai’s grandfather. While Elisai suppresses her grief through isolation, Amalie focuses on getting through to her daughter. Despite Amalie’s implicit expressions of care, Elisai’s deteriorating state of mind dissects the importance of compassion. Shot in black and white, there are flavours of the past, present and future traversing throughout the film.
"The Last Date" is a thriller that follows Leah as she discovers that her first date after a recent breakup is not what she expected.