Film is directed by Sanal Kumar Sasidharan of ‘S Durga’ fame

Kerala filmmaker Sanal Kumar Sasidharan’s Chola has been selected for this year’s edition of the Venice Film Festival. The film has been chosen as part of the ‘Orizzonti’ (Horizons) competition category, which runs parallel to the main competition. This special competitive section at the festival, dedicated to new currents in world cinema was launched in 2004.

Chola, which will have its world premiere at Venice, had also won big at the Kerala State Film Awards this year, bagging four awards, including ones for the best male and female actors. The movie also won a special jury award for direction and one for sound designing.

Sanal says that it is a road movie like his previous film S Durga, which is woven around two teenagers and their trip to the city.

“It is a look into people’s mindset, how they react differently in peculiar situations, at times against all our expectations. The film studies such situations and our judgments in those times,” says Sanal.

It is also the first time that Sanal has worked with mainstream stars, as his three films till now had lesser known actors. Actors Nimisha Sajayan and Joju George play the characters in Chola, which has been titled Shadow of Water in English.

This is not Sanal’s first tryst with the big festivals. S Durga had become the first Indian film to win the Hivos Tiger award at the Rotterdam Film Festival in 2017. The film also won a host of other awards including the Young Jury award at the 53rd Pesaro Film Festival, bagged a special mention from the Official Jury at the 53rd Pesaro Film Festival as well, the Golden Apricot award in the international feature competition category at the Yerevan International Film Festival 2017 and the best international feature narrative award at the Guanajuato International Film Festival, Mexico.

That film also plunged him into a long-winded controversy, with Hindutva groups targeting S Durga for the title. The Central Board of Film Certification also denied it certification or censor exemption, preventing its screening at major film festivals in India. It reached the theatres many months after its premiere at a private screening, following a protracted court battle.

Sanal debuted with the film Oralpokkam, and later came into the limelight with his second film Ozhivudivasathe Kali that raised important questions about caste oppression, and was set against the background of a group of men playing a drinking game.