Independent Indian director Sanal Kumar Sasidharan’s latest film, Chola (Shadow of Water), will compete at the 76th Venice Film Festival in the Orizzonti program.

Sasidharan first gained international recognition in 2017 with Sexy Durga which was the first Indian film to win the prestigious Hivos Tiger Award at the Rotterdam International Film Festival.

In Chola, Sasidharan continues his magic realistic portrait of gender dynamics in modern India, through the vexing story of a young woman’s visit to the city with her paramour – a nightmarish trip that turns into a struggle between her ingrained beliefs of men as protectors and her instinctual fear of men as predators.  The film also confronts the social problems and the very culture that hold women to incompatible roles. 

The film, is represented internationally by the Hong Kong International Film Festival’s bespoke HKIFF Collection label