Indian filmmaker Nidhi Saxena wrapped production and unveiled a first look for “Secrets of a Mountain Serpent”, his second feature film which will be presented worldwide at Venice Film Festival.
The project was selected and funded by the Collégial Cinema program of the Venice Biennale and awarded a production grant of € 200,000 ($ 234,500). “Hotel Salvation” (2016) was the last Indian film to be funded by the initiative. “Cactus Pears”, which was developed on the Biennale 2022-23 college film program, won the Grand Jury Prize in the dramatic competition for world cinema in Sundance earlier this year.
“Secrets of a Mountain Serpent”, which completed the main photography in the mystical landscapes of Uttarakhand, India, explores the lives of women left in a city far from the hill in the aftermath of the war, drawing from an ancient local legend on a snake deity pending a promised wife.
“This film lives in the silences,” explains Saxena. “The way a breathing persists. In the tension of not saying things. “
The story focuses on Barkha (Trimala Adhikari), a teacher whose husband is fighting in the Kargil war. His life becomes disrupted by the arrival of the mysterious foreigner Manik Guho, played by the acclaimed actor Adil Hussain (“Life of Pi”, “The Reticent Fundamentalist”). The cast also includes Pushpendra Singh and Richa Meena in what production describes as an “enigmatic tapestry” where folklore and blurred reality.
“Working with Adil made me realize how an artist can change the whole atmosphere, like modifying the air himself,” explains Saxena. “He shapes his body to transcend the physical, creating something spiritual, almost mystical. During the apogee scene, the whole crew was frozen – no one breathed.
The production marks the collaboration continues from Saxena with the famous Sri-Lankan filmmaker Vimukthi Jayasundara, winner of the Cannes Camera d’Or 2005, who returns as a producer after working on her first feature film “Sad Letters of A Imaginary Woman”, who had her world premiere at the Film Busan Film Festival in 2024, where she received a subsidy Asian.
“Thanks to wide static compositions and the tension of immobility, it builds a thick atmosphere of anticipation and restraint,” observes Jayasundara of the approach to the realization of Saxena.
“The kind of cinema that I want to create often leans towards the experimental, and in an industry like this, having the strong support of a deeply respected director like Vimukthi becomes essential,” thinks about Saxena on their creative partnership. “It helps shape the film, not only as a producer, but as a creative ally.”
Key Crew understands the Production designer Avni Goyal, the editor -in -chief Saman Alvitigala, the colorist Mahak Gupta and the designer of his Neeraj Gera. The film is a co -production between India, Italy and Sri Lanka.
The 82nd edition of Venice, which opens on “La Grazia” by Paolo Sorrentino, will take place on August 27-September. 6. The program will be announced on July 22.
