SHILLONG, July 5: Meghalaya-based filmmaker Dominic Megam Sangma’s second feature film, Rapture, has made it to the distinguished Locarno Film Festival, Switzerland, in a world competition in Concorso Cineaste del Presente section, scheduled between August 2 and 12.
Written and directed by Sangma, the film, whose original title is ‘Rimdogittanga’, has a running time of 127 minutes.
Jointly produced by India, China, Switzerland and Qatar, this film has travelled in esteemed film festival markets viz., Film Bazaar, Tokyo Talents (producer), and BoostNL in 2019 and Berlinale Talents (director) and La Fabrique du Cinema in 2020.
Rapture has received funding from the prestigious Hubert Bals Fund – Script Development and Vision Sud Est – Production Fund in 2019.
In 2022, it was awarded the Doha Film Institute – Post-production fund.
Characteristic of Sangma’s approach to filmmaking, the film tackles the subject of superstition and fear in a manner where dreams and reality blend to present a story of a village as cicadas emerge from the ground after every four years through a child narrator.
The filmmaker said, “Rapture is born from my very own experience about fear of the darkness when I was suffering from night blindness. As a kid, I also experienced the fear of rumoured child kidnappers stalking the village at night. There was nothing more fearful than the darkness for me then. Every night the villagers would take a turn to guard the village.”
Rapture is intensely personal for Sangma.
He witnessed an unfortunate incident of an outsider getting beaten up because of some misunderstanding as child kidnappers.
“This left a very strong impression on me as a kid, sewing the seed of difference between ‘them’ and ‘us’. With Rapture, I want to erase or at least blur the line between ‘them’ and ‘us’,” the Meghalaya-based filmmaker added. The film is also nominated for The Green Pardo Award, a prize conceived in 2022 to celebrate films highlighting values related to sustainability, ecology and interspecies relationships.
The artistic director of the Locarno Film Festival identified 10 new feature films and a programme of short films, presented as World or International premiere in the festival’s official sections, that pay particular attention to the relationship between humankind and the ecosystem, they are a part of.
A jury, composed of three personalities from the world of cinema and culture, will designate the winning film, to which it will award the Green Pardo of CHF 20,000 to the director(s). Additionally, they may also award a special mention to a short and a feature film.
Sangma is a graduate of Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI), India, where he specialised in Direction and Screenplay Writing. Before venturing into the realm of independent cinema with his own production company, Anna Films, he worked at the National Film and Development Corporation Ltd (NFDC) for two years.
His first feature film, ‘Ma.Ama’ became the first Garo film to win the National Award, including “Best Cinematography Award” at the 22nd Shanghai International Film Festival in 2019.
He has served as a jury member in celebrated film festival circuits in the country and is the guest faculty in Film and Television Institute, Itanagar. He is the co-founder of the Kelvin Cinema Festival and is the Artistic Director of the festival known for showcasing short films from the country.
