Anupar Roy Screening History in Venice

When Anupar Roy accepted the Orizzonti Award for her debut film songs on forgotten trees in Venice earlier this month, she had built a victory that was rare for most women of her origin.

Trembling with joy and unable to contain tears, the visceral display of Roy’s emotion on the stage demonstrates how great the moment is – the script of the story as the first Indian director who won in a category specifically dedicated to new votes in independent world cinema.

This in itself is a towering achievement, but Roy’s mainstay is derived from a non -inscribed tribal village in the Purulia area of ​​Western Bengal – thousands of miles from the glittering palace of Venice – it makes it even more meaningful.

From Ritwik Ghatak to Satyajit Ray to Mrinal Sen, Bengal has produced many world -renowned awares. But unlike them, the 31-year-old Roy grew far from the elite cultural influences of the Kolka and took a way better worn than the Indians in small cities, followed by work at the center of the call.

It was an escape route from the pressure to marry and a “means of economic stability”, Roy told me about a chat to increase. But in the end, it was much more.

As he was giving out IT software in Delhi, a casual meeting with film students has caused a love affair with cinema, and Roy saved every penny won over the next six years to self -make on his debut short run to the river.

After moving to Mumbai a few years later, she followed Ranjan Singh, the leading producer of songs of forgotten trees, at a party and asked him roughly, “Sir, would you like to produce a third world movie?”

Amazed by her boldness, Singh asked Roy to meet him the next day and told the idea of ​​less than 10 minutes. The meeting lasted much more than a few hours and within days he agreed to fund the project.

Hardcore fan of opera-dramatic bands by director Anurg Kashyap, Roy convinced Singh to show the Kashyap movie, which ultimately supported him.

Located in the throbbing heart of Mumbai, the songs of forgotten trees tell the story of two women from completely different worlds – thooya, an ambitious actress who as a companion, and Swetha, a colleague migrant with Call Center work. They live together in the excellent apartment of the Thooya Sugar Dad.

What begins as a live arrangement is quickly transformed into an intimate relationship between the two women, as they navigate the same -sex desire and share the experience of marginality and urban survival.

The Hollywood Reporter called the movie ” anxious portrait From what it takes to survive women “and” clear eyes, restrained, touching history “of two young women who find comfort in each other.

Other review Said Roy explores the alienation of urban alienation with “remarkable subtlety”, praising her intentionally slow, observant style of photos, which allows the “emotional terrain” of the characters to appear with clarity.

Officially untrained in the craft, Roy said it was a conscious decision not to follow the traditional rules for creating films with “Long, Medium and Close Photos” and instead to capture the rhythms of the daily life of her characters more authentically with continuous appearances.

She filmed the movie entirely in her own apartment and even made the two leading actresses move during the period.

Songs of forgotten trees are deeply personal for Roy.

It was originally intended as a documentary – the central characters were inspired by the life of Roy’s grandmother and her step -daughter, who shared a platonic but quiet intimate relationship.

Another character, Jhumpa, who is a Thooya friend, is based on Roy Jum Nat’s own childhood friend of Dalit’s community (previously untouchable), who was married at the age of 12.

“The personal is political,” Roy told me. “Juma Nat’s marriage was not a personal decision.

Roy says her childhood growing up in the shadow of India’s economic boom – where enchanted men in Belida (a piece of tube -shaped fabric wrapped around the waist) worked hard on rice fields, women bathed in lakes and families went to work in construction.

“There was poverty and economic instability around me. And I resume with the lives of these people.”

It is no surprise that on his big day in Venice, Roy wore his roots and politics firmly on his sleeve, using the platform to express support for Gaza’s children.

She asked her designer to make a traditional handmade sari that gathered two worlds – Palestine and Purulia.

Hand -painted Sari with traditional Bengal motifs had the colors of the Palestinian flag at their borders.

This caused criticism of social media, but she said she was firmly from her speech.

“I will use my voice to talk about everything that makes us uncomfortable,” Roy said.

The next on the cards is a continuation and potential background to songs of forgotten trees. The scripts are underway.

But will she ever make a commercial movie for the outside and out?

The answer is hard no.

“I can’t make a sugar -coated cinema. I have to make movies that represent the world we live in, even to upset people.”

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