And What is the Summer Saying
INDIA / 2018 / Marathi / Color, B&W / DCP / 23 min
Director, Script: Payal Kapadia
Photography: Mayank Khurana
Editing: Ghanshyam Shimpi
Sound, Sound Design: Shreyank Nanjappa
Source: Payal Kapadia
A man enters the forest to collect some honey, walking along paths he learned from his father. He tells a story his father told him long ago, of a tiger appearing in the village. The wind whispers through the trees, swaying the hammocks—listen closely and you will hear the women’s hearts murmur. Attendant to silence, this film is photographed delicately and minutely in muted colors, creating a rich and dream-like experience lit by the moon and a subdued sun.
[Director’s Statement] I am interested in that which is not easily seen or cannot be spoken about in the open. Secret desires, anxieties, and unspoken love appear constantly in my practice. It is difficult for women to openly talk about these in India. But if you sit quietly, waiting for the wind in the courtyard, maybe you will hear a whisper of a long-lost love. I spent many days in this village, waiting for the wind to bring with it some strands of stories like leaves that fall on the forest floor.
Mumbai-based filmmaker and artist. She studied directing at the Film and Television Institute of India. Kapadia’s film Afternoon Clouds premiered at Cinefondation, Cannes Film Festival in 2017. Her experimental short The Last Mango Before Monsoon premiered at the Oberhausen International Film Festival (2015), where she was awarded the FIPRESCI Prize and Special Jury Prize. Her experimental documentary And What is the Summer Saying had its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival (2018). It went on to receive the Special Jury Prize at IDFA (2018). Presently she is working on her first feature, with initial support from the Hubert Bals Bright Futures Script Development Fund.