ACF
Asian Cinema Fund
Post-Production Fund
2015 Post-Production Fund
LIST Kothanodi
| Category | Asian Project |
|---|---|
| Project | Kothanodi |
| Director | Bhaskar HAZARIKA |
| Country | India |
| Director's Profile |
Bhaskar Hazarika is from Assam and history graduate of St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi. He completed a Masters in Film & Drama from the University of Reading, England. He has since worked extensively in Indian film and television, writing for television shows as well as films. He has co-wrote the screenplay for Abbas-Mustan’s Players (2012). Hazarika co-directed the documentary Live From Peepli (2010), a film on the making of Peepli Live, for Amir Khan Productions. He also produced and directed documentaries for the Film & Television Institute of India, the United Nations Development Programme, and the Government of India. Kothanodi (The River of Fables) is his first feature film as a director. |
- Synopsis
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Once upon a time, in a place many years ago, Senehi, a schizophrenic woman who loathes her stepdaughter, plots her murder when her husband is called away on a distant business trip.
Unaware of her intentions, the husband ? Devinath - encounters a woman called Keteki who has given birth to an outenga (elephant apple), which rolls around after her. Devinath resolves to unearth the mystery of the outenga.
Meanwhile, in another village - a rich woman named Dhoneshwari is marring her daughter off to a python - a wedding that has dire consequences for the girl.
As these three stories unfold, another mother - Malati - resolves to save her newest born from the clutches of her husband Poonai and his uncle who have sacrificed her three previous babies. In doing so, she unearths a shocking truth.
- Director's Note
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Kothanodi adapts the story of the four fables contained in the Assamese folk tales compendium Buri Ai’r Xadhu (Grandma’s Tales). Compiled by foremost literary luminary Laxminath Bezbarua in 1911, these folk tales are well known and much loved by generations of Assamese children. But while the stories in Grandma’s Tales have traditionally been marketed as children’s fables, Kothanodi pushes them towards darker, unorthodox directions - where magic is real, illusions starker, emotions rawer, and horror more visceral.
Kothanodi introduces audiences to stories that have universal themes (fear, loathing, envy, and love), but are expressed local style, influenced by storytelling traditions of the numerous tribes that have inhabited Assam for centuries.
Kothanodi is another example of dark undertones that lie under the surface of almost every children′s story in the world
- Festivals
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2015 Busan International Film Festival - A Window on Asian Cinema
2015 BFI London Film Festival
2015 Mumbai Film Festival
2015 Dharmashala Film Festival
2016 Goteborg Film Festival
2016 Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles
2016 Indian National Film Award - Best Regional Feature
- Still Cut
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