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Maisam Ali’s debut Ladakhi feature In Retreat will have its first Indian screening at the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2024. Earlier in May, the film made history as the first-ever Indian film to be screened at the ACID Cannes sidebar program as part of the Cannes Film Festival. Ahead of the premiere of the film, the director sat down for an exclusive chat with Hindustan Times, talking at length about the inspiration for the film, the portrait of Ladakh he was fascinated by, and more. Excerpts. (Also read: Exclusive | MAMI director Shivendra Singh Dungarpur: ‘All We Imagine As Light is perfect choice to open the festival’)
In Retreat will have its first ever screening in India at the Mumbai Film Festival. What are your expectations from the premiere?
Of course, I am excited because it is an Indian film. These films travel internationally, but people do not see them back in India. I am happy that my friends, colleagues, and people in Mumbai are going to see the film for the first time.
It has been a great year for independent films from India at films festivals. In Retreat was at Cannes along with All We Imagine As Light, then there was Girls Will Be Girls and Village Rockstars 2 at Busan. How important is the role of a film festival for you as a filmmaker where independent films get a place and an audience?
From what I can understand, film festivals are the places where one can see different kinds of films, different kinds of stories. We see one kind of cinema in our theatres and OTT which sticks to a certain narrative and certain genres but here there are different kinds of cinema. So it is a great place for filmmakers for us to be able to show our films and have a platform.
In the future, we will continue to do similar work as this is not something new in terms of exploratory films, films that are bringing a new language in terms of pushing these stories forward.
You mention that we see a certain kind of films we see in our theatres. It is perhaps the same with a certain image we see of places in these films as well. For instance, Ladakh, where your film is set. We see Ladakh as this beautiful, scenic place… but that is not what it is entirely. How was this idea to place your film in Ladakh take shape?
I come from Ladakh; I grew up here, so it was a very natural and simple process for me to make my film in Ladakh. I come from the school of personal filmmaking, where the personal is the most unique and original. There is no other way. It was a very natural process for me because this is a personal film.
I am interested in the fact that you chose to shoot the majority of In Retreat at night. What were some of the challenges during the shoot?
I wanted to do this film for some time. I started shooting in 2021. Even before that, there was a lot of time spent around the making of how this film would look like. The idea was to do it completely on my own. My strength was that I could do the film with fewer resources because I have studied films and I know that we need the basic resources. I had a basic draft, and eventually, the film spanned out to take place over a period of a day. Later, there were changes made to the script, but the journey would take place over the period of one night.
The reason the film is set during the night comes from the characters’ motivations and moods where they want to be there but also not there in a way – avoiding and delaying his arrival. In that sense, it felt nice to have this character in the shadows. There was this interesting image which stayed with me. At night, if a stranger is walking outside the house in Ladakh, you cannot see who is there, and that person can see what lies inside. Then there was this series of paintings by this surrealist painter called René Magritte, whose series called Empire of Light- where it is night but the sky is bright… such an interesting play. These were some of the mood pieces that came into play during the making of In Retreat.
What were some of the films that inspired or left a deep impact on you?
Before going to FTII, I used to like Coen Brothers a lot! I love their work, I also love Spike Jonze, and some great American filmmakers like Nicholas Ray and John Ford. I was very affected by Grapes of Wrath when I watched it in FTII. Then, of course Ozu and Abbas Kiarostami, where their films which were not part of our culture felt so close. Ozu’s influence is immense on so many generations, where their work completely changes the way one looks at life.
Are there any plans of release for In Retreat?
We are trying! We definitely want the film to be out there and are exploring some options. There is a certain amount of money that has gone into the film, those things are also taken into account. Hopefully, the MAMI premiere will also take that conversation forward.
The MAMI Mumbai Film Festival kicked off on October 19 and will end on October 24.
