Shiladitya Bora's Bhagwan Bharose becomes first Indian film to be selected at Snowdance Independent Film Festival

Director Shiladitya Bora's debut film Bhagwan Bharose is the first Indian film to be ever selected at the prestigious Snowdance Independent Film Festival, Essen, Germany. The film stars Vinay Pathak, Satendra Soni, Sparsh Suman, Manu Rishi Chadha, Masumeh Makhija and Shrikant Verma, among many others.

Snowdance mainly shows productions made with little or no state funding. Furthermore, the festival prefers films which are not dominated by the influence of TV stations or major studios. Snowdance sees itself as the main German festival for independent, free-thinking film makers. 

Director Shiladitya Bora shared, “Snowdance has been a beacon for authentic independent cinema, a festival I've avidly followed. Nowadays there are many studio funded films which are loosely positioned as independent films. Snowdance consciously makes an effort to include only true-blue quality independent films in its selection and over the last decade, it has grown into one of the hottest indie festivals in Europe."

"With a prolific jury including Torben Schiller, Sales Director, Universal Pictures International Germany GmbH, Actor Nina Proll (Venice Best Actress Winner for Nordrand), Wolfram Winter (Political Scientist, journalist), Actress Valerie Niehaus and supported by important creatives of the German film scene, for 'Bhagwan Bharose,' selection at Snowdance is not just an accolade but a testament to its quality and compelling narrative,” Bora added.

Recently, it was also selected as the closing film of the 9th Jaffna International Cinema Festival, Sri Lanka, and soon will also be screened at the Honolulu Museum of Art (HoMA) Hawaii at the Doris Duke Theatre, Hawai'i's largest independent arthouse theatre.

For the unversed, the movie's plot centres on Satendra Soni and Sparsh Suman, two impressionable young kids whose ideas about faith are constantly questioned and changed as their little world expands and takes into its fold, their country’s fast-changing socio-political landscape. The film features original music by the pioneers of the fusion rock genre in our country, the Indian Ocean (Peepli Live, Masaan).

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