All of 30, Yudhajit Basu and his short film on periods are making big waves at Cannes 2023. The young filmmaker told Brut how he wrote the film from a female point of view.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00I'm here at Cannes with my diploma film from FTII called Nehemetz, which is in official
00:14selection at LASNIF.
00:26Yes it's the only official entry from India in Cannes in competition.
00:41I came to know of this Gaonkar Pratha in Maharashtra where women are isolated during their menstruation
00:48period and that it's a taboo, they don't even refer to the word period, they have a code
00:52language in Marathi called Malakaurana Shivla, which means, which if you translate to English
00:57it would mean I've been touched by a crow.
01:00So this phrase was the starting point of the film.
01:03We went through during the pandemic that we were isolated, we couldn't move out and we
01:07were COVID infected, they were like untouchables.
01:10So it was a remarkable, quite unique experience for the human race, but for these women in
01:15the villages of Maharashtra, this was happening to them every month while they were having
01:21their periods, they would be isolated from the world.
01:24So what was very unique for the entire world, for these women, it was regular affair.
01:29So these two things I felt would go well with the film, which is why I decided to tell the
01:35story at the backdrop of the pandemic.
01:49It was very difficult for me because I was trying to tell a story of a girl by being
01:55a man myself.
01:56And I remember before writing the script, I had lots of conversation with Anjali and
02:01other village women, and I was all cross-checking all the time that the lines that I'm writing
02:06or the way I'm showing, is it like, is it how you also feel like that way?
02:15I understood it's not my cup of tea, I gave it up.
02:17I joined Senzevier's Kolkata in mass communication and videography.
02:25We made two short films in Nepali called Kuiro and Khoji.
02:32It shaped up my understanding of cinema and yeah, that's how it has been.
02:38But I knew from a very early age that I wanted to be into filmmaking.
02:46It's this section, since it's meant for film school students.
02:49There's just one website where you upload the film.
02:52Like I finished the film in Jan-end.
02:55My main goal was to meet the Cannes deadline, which is 15th Feb.
02:58So I finished it, I uploaded it on the website, and on 8th March I got a lovely email from the artistic director
03:05saying that my film has been selected.
03:11One very literal meaning will be always.
03:14Another, a little poetic meaning would be eternal, or maybe for all the remaining time.
03:19Because it's such a poetic word in Maharashtra, which has no particular English translation,
03:26I decided to keep it as Nehevich and let people know the film.
03:46There had always been like that.
03:48I mean, glamour had always been a part of cinema.
03:51So I can't say.
03:52But of course, because Festival of Cannes is basically for celebrating world cinema,
03:58it's not a fashion show.