Indian film 'Gudh' in Cannes awards race

Two films from India – "Gudh" (Nest) and "The Cinema Travellers" – are up for awards at the 69th Cannes Film Festival.

Saurav Rai's "Gudh" is in the Cinefondation students' short films competition. The awards for the section will be announced at a special ceremony here on Friday.

"Gudh" is the diploma film that Kalimpong boy Rai made at the Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute, Kolkata. It is among 15 titles chosen from film schools across the world for the competition. With a running time of 28 minutes, the film has the feel of personal essay delivered in a style that is both evocative and emotionally resonant.

"'Gudh' pieces together moments from the memories of my childhood. I was in a Kathmandu school till Class 6 but would return home for holidays every year. The film captures my impressions of those years," says Rai.

"The Cinema Travellers", a lively documentary by Shirley Abraham and Amit Madheshiya, is one of 26 debut films across the Cannes official selection that are eligible for the prestigious Camera



d'Or award.

The 96-minute film, which zeroes in on the travelling tent cinemas of rural Maharashtra, captures the energy and joy of film watching like no other official Cannes entry this year does.

"The film was eight years in making," says Abraham. "It celebrates the keepers and custodians of the touring cinema tradition. It is great that it is premiering in Cannes."

Wonderfully shot by Madheshiya, who is a photographer who has documented the tambu cinemas of Maharashtra for years, the film takes the audience on a journey across a fascinating landscape in the company of two touring talkies owners and a projector specialist who is an innovator and inventor par excellence.

"Film watching is a community experience," says Madheshiya. "When one sees the enthusiasm that this tradition still generates, one can understand what people who were first exposed to the medium through the films of the Lumiere brothers would have felt." The Camera d'Or winner will be announced at the closing ceremony of the festival on Sunday.