In a lost village in the western Ghats, Pedro has found a place with his brother’s wife and his nephew who he raises as his own son. But for the community he remains the handyman, exploited at will, a kind of outcast who is not to be trusted. His situation worsens when he is hired by the rich landlord who holds the family in his clutches: employed to protect his estate from wild boars, he accidentally kills a cow. The rainy green forest to which Pedro’s characters are confined could be that of a fairy tale or short story. It is home to a world of invisible, constraining ties, rampant alcoholism and indistinct revolt, where here and there beauty still arises. Natesh Hegde’s first feature film proves a calm mastery and a rare subtlety, linking the directing’s elliptical and suggestive precision to the depth of the gaze it sets on its characters. FM
French Premiere
