Tumbbad: Indian Fantasy to Open Venice Film Festival Critics' Week

The Venice Critics'Week's Artistic Director, Giona Nazzaro, described the 19th-century-set Tumbbad, co-directed by Rai Anil Barve and Adesh Prasad, “as a fast-paced parable about greed and a visionary fantasy movie, rich in visual inventions, special effects and blood.”

Gautaman Bhaskaran | News18 Specials

Updated:July 24, 2018, 11:21 AM IST

Tumbbad: Indian Fantasy to Open Venice Film Festival Critics' Week

Image: A YouTube grab

Tumbbad, an Indian fantasy movie, will open the Venice Film Festival's Critics' Week on August 29. The Critics' Week – like the Cannes Critics' Week – is an important sidebar on Lido, the quaint island off Venice mainland that hosts the annual autumn Festival.

The Venice Critics'Week's Artistic Director, Giona Nazzaro, described the 19th-century-set Tumbbad, co-directed by Rai Anil Barve and Adesh Prasad, “as a fast-paced parable about greed and a visionary fantasy movie, rich in visual inventions, special effects and blood.”

The Hindi-language epic, produced by Mumbai-based Little Town Films, will be screened out of competition, and is sold internationally by Eros International.

In a press statement producer Aanand Rai said: "Very excited to release Tumbbad this year. Other than great storytelling, Tumbbad is an audio-visual experience on the big screen. Personally, I feel it’s a genre-defining movie for our audience."

The other films in the Critics' Week include Sudanese director’s Hajooj Kuka’s “A Kasha” (“The Roundup”), a comedy of errors set during the country's civil war; German director Andreas Goldstein’s “Adam & Evelyn,” a coming-of-age story unfolding in aftermath of the fall of the Berlin Wall; Franco-Swiss directorial duo Alexia Walther and Maxime Matray’s “Blonde Animals,” a surreal comedy about a former star of a short-lived TV sitcom; and “Still Recording,” a documentary on the conflict in Syria.

The Festival will unveil its full list of movies on July 25 in Rome.

The Festival runs from August 29 to September 8.

(Author, commentator and movie critic Gautaman Bhaskaran has covered the Venice Film Festival for over 15 years, and will be back on the Lido this autumn)