Shashank Walia’s Birds in the Dark (Hanere De Panchi), a Punjabi-language feature backed by Hansal Mehta amongst others, will have its World Premiere in the Vision section at 31st Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), running from October 6 to 15.
Set in rural Punjab, Birds In The Dark is shot in black-and-white and features dialects of Punjabi, Kashmiri and Urdu. Produced by Reema Kaur for Two Black Squares, and by Hansal Mehta and Sahil Saigal for True Story Films, the film cuts across themes of gender, caste, class and labour.
Filmmaker Shashank Walia has written, shot and directed Birds in the Dark. On the film’s official selection at Busan, he said in a statement to THR India, “Birds in the Dark emerges from the people and returns to them. This film was born from a desire to understand one another through mutual aid, care, and solidarity. It is in these acts that we discover what connects us, what is worth fighting for, and, ultimately, what sustains us; love.
Hansal Menta commented on his third Busan selection after Aligarh (2015) and Omerta (2017).
”This is my 3rd film at Busan (Aligarh and Omerta as director) and I couldn’t be prouder making my debut as a producer at Busan with Shashank’s exquisitely meditative painting on gender, labour, justice and love,” Mehta stated.
Producer Sahil Saigal expressed, "True Story Films has always looked to back distinct, director-driven voices alongside our mainstream work. Birds in the Dark (Hanere De Panchi) belongs on a stage like Busan, and we're proud to bring it there.”
Reema Kaur, who serves as the film’s editor as well as producer, said, “This film is our sincere attempt to portray the quiet, mundane rhythms of everyday life, and the resilience that lives within them. Living alongside the community, listening to their stories, and working with them to bring this story forth, we discovered the power of the collective. It has been a deeply humbling journey.”
Founded in 1996, the Busan International Film Festival is Korea's first film festival and one of Asia's most significant. Its Vision section is a curated selection of ‘groundbreaking independent films’ of the year from Korea and Asia. Selvi, a Tamil-language film starring Anjali Patil and directed by Sailesh Rathnakumar, is also one of the 23 films in the section at the festival.