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In the high, isolated altitudes of eastern Nepal, a village exists in a state of tranquil suspension, its lifeblood flowing through ancient traditions. Here, a family’s world is woven from the same bamboo that the patriarch, Maila, shapes into mats and baskets.

His life with his wife, Maili, and their young son, Bindre, is one of simple, rhythmic certainty. This fragile peace is shattered by the arrival of a road, a dusty scar carved into the mountainside. This is no mere path of gravel and dirt; it is a conduit for another world, a channel through which the future arrives with the force of an avalanche.

The road brings the rumble of a bus and the whispers of a city, introducing a promise of connection that quickly reveals itself as a threat. With this single line of infrastructure, the delicate threads holding a family and a community together begin to fray,...

Widening gulfs in mountain society drives one father to the precipice in Nabin Subba’s humble yet mythic parable

If an interest in realism is a bellwether for a film industry’s relationship with social conditions in a given country, it’s always instructive to see where notable examples of the genre crop up. After 2012’s Wadjda prefigured the opening up of Saudi Arabia, here is a fretful example from Nepal, resplendently shot in the vast mountainsides above the eastern city of Dharan, but which agonises about the country’s modernisation.

Weaver Maila (Dayahang Rai) finds himself on the wrong side of progress after a road is built connecting the Rai village of Balankha to the valley below. With plastic tarps on sale at a local store now bursting with hot new merch, no one wants his bamboo mats any more. His electricity is cut off, stopping his scallywag son Bindray (Prasan Rai) from studying,...

The whodunit has long been one of cinema’s most overused genres, which may explain why we see fewer of them today. Yet Deepak Rauniyar revitalizes the format by placing the crime itself within a broader sociopolitical frame, effectively turning it into one element among many. Let’s begin from the start.

“Pooja, Sir” is screening in London on 15 August, at Riverside Studios, with director Deepak Rauniyar and Asha Magarati attending for a Q&a after the film

The story follows Inspector Pooja Thapa, a queer officer living alone in Kathmandu, who is called to southern Nepal to investigate the kidnapping of two boys—the sons of a headmistress and her politician husband. The region is rife with tension between Nepalese citizens and the Madheshi minority. As Pooja delves into the case, she must navigate her identity and this fraught landscape. Fortunately, she gains allies in Mamata, a former local Madhesi policewoman,...

After world premiering at the 2024 Venice Film Festival, director-producer Deepak Rauniyar’s crime thriller “Pooja, Sir: Rajagunj” has finally released in its home country of Nepal, but not without hurdles.

The film is now in its second week in Nepali theaters, following a contentious battle with government censors that left the film with significant alterations.

Rauniyar’s first feature, “Highway,” premiered at the 2012 Berlinale and played Locarno, while his 2016 sophomore feature “White Sun” won awards at the Venice, Palm Springs, Fribourg and Singapore festivals. He is also a Berlinale Talents alumnus and his short film “Four Nights” played at Berlinale Shorts in 2022.

The politically charged film, which follows Detective Inspector Pooja (Asha Magrati) investigating a kidnapping in a fictional border town during the 2015 Madhesi protests, has been subjected to what Rauniyar calls “an attack on the fundamental right to freedom of speech guaranteed by the constitution.”

According to Rauniyar, among...

In “A Road to a Village” (“Gaun Aayeko Bato”), director Nabin Subba’s characters are located in the existing milieu of the underclass or the working poor who reside in the often-overlooked gap between poverty and development. They have the means to find work but still have to break their backs due to low wages, lack of better opportunities, and other systemic barriers in place. “A Road to a Village” is set in a remote Nepali village up in the hills with the nearest city far from it. Transformation in the shape of a better road and a regular bus service to the city changes the face of the village. So, as progress begins to register an upward shift in the condition of the residents, the film launches a personal and universal inquiry into the tensions between traditions and the forces of global consumerism.

At the heart of the story...

As modernity has reached even the most remote places of our planet, it is perhaps time to re-evaluate its downsides and benefits. While the link to the outside world, more accessible goods and ways to make a living is most certainly an advantage, the loss of tradition combined with the disappearance of some communities is not. Nepalese director Nabin Subba, who has tackled this specific issue in many of his features, such as “Numafung” (2001), speaks of a time of “fear and uncertainty” for many communities, which is one of the side effects of a connection to the modern world. In his latest work “A Road to a Village” Subba tells the story of a family whose life is fundamentally changed after a road finally connects their village to the nearby town. It is a story about opportunities as well as anxieties as the village and the family have to face...

The whodunit film is one of those in the history of cinema that has been done to death, which is perhaps one of the reasons we do not see that many in the category nowadays. Nepalese Deepak Rauniyar manages to reinvigorate the genre, however, by incorporating a number of sociopolitical elements, which essentially deem the crime another aspect instead of the basis. Let us take things from the beginning though.

Pooja, Sir is screening at Thessaloniki International Film Festival

Pooja, a queer police officer who lives in solitude in Kathmandu, is summoned to the south of Nepal to take on a delicate case: in a region where unrest between Nepalese citizens and the large Indian minority, the Madheshi people, is a commonplace phenomenon, two young boys, the sons of a powerful headmistress and wife of a politician, fall victim to kidnapping. Trying to navigate the intricate situation in the area and her own identity,...

The Madhesh Crisis of Nepal, whereby the Madhesh communities would launch a political movement for identity and equal rights, becomes the backdrop for “Pooja, Sir” (2024). More specifically the 2015 Madhesh Movement becomes the substrate on which this taut police procedural takes place.

Amidst this politically tumultuous environment of 2015, Inspector Pooja Thapa is deployed from Kathmandu to the border town of Rajgunj to investigate the kidnapping of two children in broad daylight, in the middle of a political proceeding. The investigation is heavily integrated within the political standpoint because one of the kids kidnapped is the son of a Madheshi politician, who had married a light-skinned woman to enjoy an upper-echelon status in society. The politician’s wife is also the headmistress of the school where the two kids studied. The politician is not the most popular in his community, while the rescuing of this child is the priority of the police chief.

Indian auteur Anurag Kashyap has boarded Deepak Rauniyar’s “Pooja, Sir” as an executive producer, while Channel 4 has snapped up the film for the U.K. and Ireland.

The film debuted in the Venice Film Festival‘s Horizons strand competition earlier this year, and has subsequently played Hamburg and Busan, with the Mami Mumbai Film Festival up next. It is inspired by real events which took place in Southern Nepal during the 2015 race protests, involving the Madhesi community. In the film, when two boys are kidnapped in a border town in Nepal, Detective Inspector Pooja is sent from Kathmandu to solve the case. However, upon her arrival, the brewing political unrest and violent protests throw her off course, compelling her to seek help from Mamata, a local Madhesi policewoman. By putting aside systemic discrimination and pushing through everyday misogyny, the women attempt to solve the case.

The cast is...

Deepak Rauniyar’s “Pooja, Sir,” which is in the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons strand competition this year, has revealed several territory sales and a first teaser.

The film is inspired by real events which took place in Southern Nepal during the 2015 race protests, involving the Madhesi community. In the film, when two boys are kidnapped in a border town in Nepal, Detective Inspector Pooja is sent from Kathmandu to solve the case. However, upon her arrival, the brewing political unrest and violent protests throw her off course, compelling her to seek help from Mamata, a local Madhesi policewoman. By putting aside systemic discrimination and pushing through everyday misogyny, the women attempt to solve the case.

The cast is led by Asha Magrati and also includes Nepali cinema superstar Dayahang Rai, Nikita Chandak, Reecha Sharma, Bijay Baral, Gaumaya Gurung, Aarti Mandal, Ghanashyam Mishra, Prameshwar Kumar Jha, Pashupati Rai and Niraj Shrestha.

Actor Bruce Dern will be seen sharing screen space with Nepali cinema stalwarts Dayahang Rai and Hari Bansha Acharya in Binod Paudel’s ‘The World’s Happiest Man’. The film delves into the plight of Bhutanese-Nepali refugees who settled in the Ohio-Pennsylvania area and fought alienation and displacement, reports ‘Variety’.

Paudel’s ‘Bulbul’ was chosen as Nepal’s entry in the Oscars’ international category in 2019. He won best director at Nepal’s National Film Awards, where he had previously won the screenplay award for ‘Saanghuro’ (2013).

Rai headlined ‘A Road to a Village’, which bowed at Toronto in 2023 and went on to play at Busan and Mumbai. He also stars in ‘The Sky is Mine’.

Acharya starred in ‘Mahapurush’, which was Nepal’s highest grossing film of 2022.

‘The World’s Happiest Man’ participated in the 2019 Busan Asian Project Market under the title ‘Akron International’.

Dern has been Oscar-nominated twice, for ‘Coming Home...

Bruce Dern will star alongside Nepali cinema stalwarts Dayahang Rai and Hari Bansha Acharya in Binod Paudel’s “The World’s Happiest Man.”

The story delves into the plight of Bhutanese-Nepali refugees who settled in the Ohio-Pennsylvania area and fought alienation and displacement.

Paudel’s “Bulbul” was chosen as Nepal’s entry in the Oscars’ international category in 2019. He won best director at Nepal’s National Film Awards, where he had previously won the screenplay award for “Saanghuro” (2013).

Rai headlined “A Road to a Village,” which bowed at Toronto in 2023 and went on to play at Busan and Mumbai. He also stars in “The Sky is Mine.” Acharya starred in “Mahapurush,” which was Nepal’s highest grossing film of 2022.

“The World’s Happiest Man” participated in the 2019 Busan Asian Project Market under the title “Akron International.” The U.S.-Nepal project is produced by Rajendra Thakurathi, Amitabh Joshi and Abeeral Thapa,...

Presenting a total of 269 films, including 80 world premieres, the 28th edition of the Busan International Film Festival concluded earlier this month, closing out with Andy Lau’s comedy The Movie Emperor. In addition to screenings, the festival hosted talks and master classes, with over 250 guests participating, notably Chow Yun Fat, Luc Besson, Fan Bingbing, Hirokazu Kore-eda, and Ryusuke Hamaguchi. Over 40 countries and more than 900 companies took part in the festival’s adjoining Asian Contents & Film Market section, while special programs addressed the Korean Diaspora and the Renaissance of Indonesian Cinema.

Along with international favorites like Poor Things, The Beast, and Anatomy of a Fall, Biff offered films from Korea, mainland China, Japan, and Southeast Asia, spotlighting emerging filmmakers like Iqbal H. Chowdhury, Chia Chee Sum (Oasis of Now), and Mirlan Abdykalykov (Jiseok award-winner Bride Kidnapping).

Here are five standouts from the crowded schedule:

Work to Do (Park Hong-jun)

With Work to Do,...

Acclaimed Nepalese filmmaker Deepak Rauniyar has wrapped principal photography on his next feature “Rajagunj” (“The Sky is Mine”).

The film is also one of nine projects to receive funding from the Norwegian Film Institute’s Sorfond. It received NOK625,000.

Rauniyar’s first feature, “Highway,” premiered at the 2012 Berlinale and played Locarno, while his sophomore feature “White Sun” (2016) won awards at the Venice, Palm Springs, Fribourg and Singapore festivals. He is also a Berlinale Talents alumnus and his short film “Four Nights” played at Berlinale Shorts in 2022.

Written by Rauniyar, David Barker and Asha Magrati, “The Sky is Mine” examines the caste system endemic to South Asia, where there is great emphasis on skin color. The film follows Pooja, a light-skinned Nepali police officer, who has broken centuries-old misogyny by becoming the first female detective in the country. She comes across her first case in a violent border town. While tens...

Acclaimed Nepalese filmmaker Deepak Rauniyar has cast Indian actor Tannishtha Chatterjee as one of the leads in his upcoming feature “The Sky Is Mine.”

Chatterjee’s credits include “Brick Lane” (2007), for which she scored a best actress nomination at the British Independent Film Awards, “Parched” (2015) and “Lion” (2016). She won the Asia Star Award for best Asian filmmaker at Busan for her directorial debut, “Roam Rome Mein” (2019).

Rauniyar’s latest work, short film “Four Nights,” is playing at Berlinale Shorts. The filmmaker’s first feature, “Highway,” premiered at the 2012 Berlinale and played Locarno, while his sophomore feature “White Sun” (2016) won awards at the Venice, Palm Springs, Fribourg and Singapore festivals. He is also a Berlinale Talents alumnus.

Written by Rauniyar, David Barker and Asha Magrati, “The Sky Is Mine” examines the caste system endemic to South Asia, where there is great emphasis on skin color. The film will follow Pooja, a light-skinned Nepali police officer,...

By Shikhar Verma

“White Sun”, the title of Deepak Rauniyar’s sophomore Nepalese drama refers to peace. The peace that is neither as peaceful as it seems on the surface nor as easy as it is supposed to be. Balancing detailed and intimate human drama with sharply observed political delicacy, Rauniyar’s film beautifully encapsulates the post-war scenario in contemporary Nepal. Satirizing the traditions and beliefs where the old are set against the new, “White Sun” observes the dilemma of well-rounded characters and their baggage with each other, through death and change. It also observes the guilt, transformations, and freedom that something as stark as war can bring into some people’s life. With a light touch and absurd comic situations, Rauniyar’s film slowly and assuredly becomes an important piece of cinema which gives to all the viewers an opportunity to look into the world we live in or should know about.