The Malayalam-language action film “Jallikattu” directed by Lijo Jose Pellissery has been selected as the Indian entry at 93rd Oscar Awards in Best International Feature Film category. The film is based on a story by S. Hareesh, its title a reference to a traditional spectacle in which individuals attempt to wrangle a bull.

Jallikattu stars Antony Varghese, Chemban Vinod Jose, Sabumon Abdusamad and Santhy Balachandran; and world premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival.

Jallikattu unfolds in a remote village in the hills of Pellissery’s home state of Kerala, India, where a butcher’s buffalo breaks free and runs amok, destroying shops and crops before vanishing into the surrounding woods. Various men from in and around the village assemble to hunt the animal down, forming teams based on old allegiances and grudges. But the buffalo proves more elusive than anyone expected, goading its pursuers into frenzies of communal bluster, which build towards a fiery climax in which violence breeds its own kind of ecstasy.