Following an impressive global film festival run that began with the 70th annual Berlinale and included in MoMA’s 2020 New Directors/New Films festival, The Shepherdess and the Seven Songs (Laila aur satt geet) returns to New York January 12th, 2022 for a week-long run at The Museum of Modern Art.
The fourth feature from award-winning Indian arthouse writer/director Pushpendra Singh (The Honor Keeper, 2014; Ashwatthama, 2017; Pearl of the Desert, 2019), The Shepherdess and the Seven Songs is the second of Singh’s films to be based on the works of celebrated Rajasthani writer Vidaydan Detha, while also taking great inspiration from 14th-century Indian folklore. Divided into seven separate sections, each structured around a unique song that acts as insight into the protagonist’s inner world, the film is an exquisite folk drama that is both feminist and political in nature, and visually magnetic from start to finish. Winner of the Best Director – International at the Hong Kong International Film Festival and the NETPAC Award from the Jeonju Film Festival.
“It is an honor for the film to be showcased at MoMA” says Singh on the upcoming theatrical engagement. “I hope the screenings will bring to light a culture marginalized by the might of a state, and further neglected by the media and non-government organizations.”
The Shepherdess and the Seven Songs centers on a young bride, Laila (Navjot Randhawa, in a ferocious and unforgettable performance) who marries into a tribe of nomadic Bakarwal herders. Already harassed by local police as a minority, Laila finds herself targeted for her remarkable beauty by local officials. Her implacable and ingenious manipulation of the men who want to possess her, and the patriarchy that wants to crush her, plays out in a series of seven chapters— the Song of Regret, the Song of Playfulness— each tied into the rapturously gorgeous score by Naren Chandavarkar and Benedict Taylor. Like the mystical films of Sergei Parajanov, Singh weaves breathtaking visuals and music into a hypnotic and indelible experience. The film’s truly cosmic climax, where Laila attempts to shed the bonds of male desire and infatuation pursuing her, must be seen to be believed. The film was shot in Jammu and Kashmir and co-stars Shahnawaz Bhat and Sadakkit Bijran. Singh produced alongside Sanjay Gulati, Ajit Singh Rathore, and Gulab Singh Tanwar.
Following the run at MoMA, The Shepherdess and the Seven Songs will be released on VOD in North America in spring 2022 from Deaf Crocodile, Gratitude Films, and Grasshopper Films.
Watch the trailer for The Shepherdess and the Seven Songs.