Meghalaya filmmaker Dominic Sangma whose Garo language film ‘Rapture’ (Rimdogittanga) has been selected for the prestigious Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, said it has been a huge honour for him and the team.
The 127-minute will be competing in the Concorso Cineaste del Presente section with some of the best contemporary global films. It has also been nominated for The Green Pardo Award.
“It’s a huge honour. I really don’t know where to start, the Rapture family is so big now and every one holds a special place in it,” said Dominic Sangma.
“It’s a result of everyone’s hard work and love for the project. I’m so thankful to each one of them who supported me in the journey.”
The 76th edition of the Locarno Film Festival begins on August 2.
The film is a collaboration of India, China, Switzerland, Netherlands and Qatar. The producers of the film are Jianshang Xu, Eva Gunme R Marak, Anupama Rangchar, Li Sun, Harsh Agarwal and Dominic himself.
The film narrates a story of a village which is gripped by the fear of child kidnappers every night as the church prophesized that an apocalyptic darkness will come lasting for 80 days. And for a 10-year-old boy who suffers from night blindness, the village has never been more fearful.
Dominic said the film reflects his own experience about fear of the darkness when he was suffering from night blindness as a kid.
“I also experienced the fear of rumoured child kidnappers stalking the village at night. There was nothing more fearful than the darkness for me then. Every night the villagers would take a turn to guard the village. One day, the villagers caught a stranger. The village elders enquired about the purpose of his visit. Unfortunately, the villagers couldn’t understand his language. He was severely beaten almost to death. This incident was justified and rationalized, and we were strongly warned to keep it to ourselves,” said Dominic.
“This left a very strong impression on me as a kid and sewed the seed of difference between ‘them’ and ‘us’. With Rapture, I want to erase or at least blur the line between ‘them’ and ‘us’.”
Competition section:
The Concorso Cineasti del presente offers a selection of first and second feature films, primarily world premieres, directed by emerging global talents. It’s the place devoted to the discovery of tomorrow’s cinema, which deserves to be supported beyond all genre distinctions. Besides the traditional Pardo d’oro, an award for directing, as of this year, Cineasti del presente also offers two prizes for the best performance.
Green Pardo Award:
The film also reflects an environmental theme for which it has been nominated for the Green Pardo Award. In collaboration with WWF, the Green Pardo WWF is the prize that aims to find – in any of the festival’s competition sections – the film which best reflects the environmental theme, offering new and stimulating interpretations to the audience. The green statue channels the festival’s message of sustainability, by encouraging works and filmmakers that are able to inspire and raise awareness of environmental protection.
Locarno Film Festival:
Locarno Film Festival was born in the aftermath of the Second World War. It offered a stage for revival, freedom of art and expression for talents from all over the world eager to tell stories in new, different ways. Since its inception, Locarno has been home to the most daring, avant-garde, irreverent and innovative forms of films – screened in their uncut, uncensored versions.
About the director:
Dominic Megam Sangma is a graduate of Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, India, specialising in direction and screenplay writing. He worked at National Film and Development Corporation Ltd, for two years before he opened his own production company called Anna Films. He is a guest faculty in Film and Television Institute, Itanagar. He was selected in Berlinale Talents 2020. He co-founded Kelvin Cinema Festival of Films and he is an artistic director of the festival.
His first feature film MA•AMA became the first Garo film to win a national award. The film won best cinematography award at the 22nd Shanghai International Film Festival 2019. He was on the jury board for Indian Panorama, the International Film Festival of India and the Guwahati International Short Film and Documentary Film Festival.
