BENGALURU: Abinash Bikram Shah, who was one of the jury members of the recently-concluded Bangalore International Film Festival (BIFFes), was appreciated by many for his calm demeanour. This same sensibility of his can be spotted in his recent short film, Lori, which was nominated for the Short Film Palme d’Or at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, and won a Special Jury Mention.
Shah’s movie Lori is about a mother-daughter relationship when the daughter is getting married. “In countries like Nepal and India, we have various songs during various rituals. I’ve used these songs to indicate the progress of the film which also depicts the patriarchy which is being carried forward,” says Shah, adding, “My father passed away when I was very young and it was my mother who brought me up and my sisters.
So many of my ideas come from my upbringing.” Having gathered a lot of attention internationally, Shah felt the movie garnered curiosity because it’s something different. “Another reason could be because of how the story is being told. It is a 15-minute film with four songs. It is like a musical but not like a Hollywood one,” says Shah.
Not just his short film, Southeast Asian movies are enjoying their moment in the international spotlight right now. “The international audience might not have seen movies like RRR. Films that are being awarded are also the ones where we are proudly displaying our culture. For the international audience, it is a fresh perspective,” he says.
Shah started his journey in movies as a writer with some of his movies being screened at international film festivals like the Venice Film Festival and the Berlin Film Festival. “When I started, my mother was never convinced that the film industry could be a profession,” says Shah, who was born in a small town at the India-Nepal border but later moved to Kathmandu.
A huge fan of Satyajit Ray’s work, Shah never thought of moving to Bollywood or the neighbouring Bengali film industry. “I feel I have so much to say that I feel I could do a better job by working in Nepali films. There are so many socio-political issues and stories in Nepal that need to be told and addressed. And I want to do it through my films, ” says Shah adding that there is a huge financial crunch being an independent filmmaker.