ELEPHANTS IN THE FOG © Underground Talkies Nepal / Les Valseurs / DGS
Where is our place? A letter from Abinash Bikram Shah
It’s the first Nepalese feature film selected at the Festival de Cannes! Elephants in the Fog, represents a new milestone in director Abinash Bikram Shah‘s path. After winning the Special Jury Prize for his short film Lori, at the 2022 Festival de Cannes, the director returns with a suspense film taking place in the Nepalese Kinnnar matriarch community. Here is the letter he wrote us.
Dear Festival Team,
I have always been moved by the resilience of the Kinnar community and their notion of a chosen family, a kinship built not through blood, but through shared necessity, care, and love. The first flicker of this story appeared during the lockdown while I was scrolling through TikTok. I came across videos of Kinnar women sharing joyful, vibrant glimpses of their lives. What struck me was the jarring contrast, the videos were filled with life, but the comments were often filled with
cruelty. Despite this, they continued to exist openly.
In Nepal, this community is often pushed to the margins, yet invited into intimate spaces as spiritual figures whose blessings bring fortune and whose curses are feared. This tension between rejection and dependence felt deeply human to me. Too often, they are represented through caricature or pity; I wanted to offer something more truthful, showing them in all their contradictions, tenderness, and dignity.
At its heart, this film asks a question we all eventually face: where do we belong, and what must we sacrifice to finally belong to ourselves? I hope this story clears even a little of the fog of prejudice, allowing the audience to truly see another person, or perhaps a part of themselves.
In making the film, I was inspired by the works of filmmakers like Satyajit Ray and Hou Hsiao-hsien, whose compassion for ordinary lives continues to inspire me, and by the emotional intimacy of Nan Goldin’s images, who captured the tenderness and truth of marginalized communities in all their rawness. This film was made through trust, patience, and collaboration with people whose lived experiences shaped every frame. It was important to me that many of the actors came from the communities portrayed, bringing a presence no performance could manufacture.
This journey has deeply shaped me, and I carry its spirit into my upcoming projects, The Goddess, The Demon and The Dragonflies and Thar, as I continue to explore the complex, often unseen threads of the human experience.
