Dharamshala International Film Festival returns with global indie cinema lineup

AS halcyon autumn descends upon Himachal Pradesh, take enthusiasts fold the quaint mountains of Dharamshala to get main(a) cinema from around the world. The Dharamshala International Film Festival (DIFF) — now in its 14th year and being held at the Tibetan Children’s Village from October 30 to November 2 — has once again assembled a stellar line-up of world cinema and insightful conversations for the 2025 edition.Founded by Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam in 2012, the festival has come a long way and has been nurtured into one of the highly-anticipated platforms for independent filmmakers to showcase their work. DIFF, its founders say, is heavily competitive, the reason being the laborious process of selecting films, which begins as early as May. The panel received around 700 entries this year, of which a little over 80 have been selected. DIFF opened for submissions five years after it was founded.“We have a team of watchers, and our core programming team, comprising interns, students of cinema studies, and others. There is also a lot of cross-watching involved to tighten the selection process,” says Bina Paul, director of programming at DIFF.This year’s line-up includes The Wolves Always Come at Night, a 2024 Mongolian docudrama directed by Gabrielle Brady, portraying the lives of a couple who are forced to abandon their lives as shepherds and move to Ulaanbaatar after their livelihood is disrupted by climate crisis. The film is Australia’s entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 98th Academy Awards.Masaan director Neeraj Ghaywan’s Homebound, starring Ishaan Khattar, Vishal Jethwa, Janhvi Kapoor, and Rohan Parashuram Kanawade’s path breaking Marathi film Sabar Bonda are among the theatrical releases to be featured.Among the lesser-known features to look out for are 100 Sunset by Kunsang Kyirong, the story of an introverted thief in the Tibetan neighbourhood of Toronto; Prabhash Chandra’s Alaav (Hindi), the story of a 63-year-old son taking care of his ailing 95-year-old mother in Delhi suburbs; Rita Heer’s short film Abja and Her Pickled Eggs, the story of a woman about to enter her 40th year and dilemma of whether to freeze her eggs and keep the possibility of motherhood alive; and Romeria (Spanish, Catalan, French) by Carla Simón, on an 18-year-old orphan who must travel to Spain’s Atlantic coast to obtain a signature for a scholarship application from the paternal grandparents she has never met.The documentaries include Cutting Through Rocks by Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni (in English, Turkish, Persian) on the first elected councilwoman of a conservative Iranian village; Orwell 2+2 = 5 (English) by Raoul Peck, which delves into the final months of George Orwell when he finished ‘1984’, his final but most important novel; and Johnny Burke and Andrew Hinton’s Loving Karma (English, Monpa, Hindi) about a child who struggled, until life at a Tibetan monastery gave him healing and purpose.Andrey Tarkovsky: A Cinema Prayer, a documentary by Andrey A Tarkovsky, the son of the brilliant Soviet-era filmmaker Andrey Tarkovsky, focuses on the senior Tarkovsky’s memories, understanding of art, and the meaning of human existence. The film is accompanied by previously unreleased recordings of poems by Arseny Tarkovsky – one of the greatest Russian poets of the 20th century and the director’s father – read by the poet himself.These apart, there are also conversations with filmmakers and artistes like Kanawade, Kiran Rao, Adil Hussain, and Arjun Talwar, among others.Paul says that the array of screenings this year, like in the past too, has been chosen to create a sort of anthology of good cinema. What has also been a boon in disguise is the fact that DIFF is a smaller festival compared to many others. “Big festivals often feature 300-odd films or more. But here we have to be extremely selective, the kind of representation we want to feature is at the heart of the selection process,” says Sarin.Amid the quiet hustle of mountain life, DIFF has, over time, nurtured the cinema as well as the philosophy of the mountains. “There is no overarching thematic concern we work with. But the location and the venue always inform the philosophy of the curation. Dharamshala is home to a community living in exile. It is also nestled in the Himalayas, both of which leave an imprint on our work,” says Paul.