Join our series of film screenings and talks that invite off-beat and independent filmmakers and creative professionals working in the medium of cinematic arts to share their films, videos and engage in conversation with audiences. The title of the series is inspired from the well-known classic Italian film Nuovo Cinema Paradiso (1988) by Giuseppe Tornatore. The film is an ode to the love of cinema as seen through the eyes of a young boy Toto, while he develops a friendship with the projectionist of a dilapidated cinema theatre based in post WW2 Sicily. In the same vein, this series will bring together cinema professionals and scholars to decode and demystify the magic that plays on screen, and hopes to hone love and appreciation for the cinematic arts. KNMA hopes to invite artists and storytellers working with the medium of moving images, attempting to bridge a gap between popular arts and museum audiences – providing the rare opportunity of engaging directly with the filmmakers as well prior to the film screening. The series is designed by Neha ‘Zooni’ Tickoo, curator-KNMA. 

We begin this new season of the successful film series with The Gold-Laden Sheep and The Sacred Mountain(2018) by Ridham Janve. 

Duration : 97 minutes. 

Language: Various with English subtitles 

Synopsis: 

In the Upper Dhauladhar Mountains, an old shepherd and his servant manage the sheep and goats in solitude. After an Air Force jet crashes into a distant valley, the shepherd rejects his servant’s suggestion that they salvage the jet’s parts for quick cash. But as they make the journey to the next pasture, they must travel up the mountain and through the treacherous Indrahara Pass. When they arrive, they learn that neither the jet nor its pilot have been discovered and word of a reward for their discovery plants a further disturbing desire within the shepherd. The man decides to leave his herd to find its pilot, knowing that the crash occurred at a sacred place that no mere mortals could find. The shepherd struggles through overwhelming states of desire and fear as he treads on forbidden ground with intentions that are far from sacred.

BIOGRAPHY of FILMMAKER

Ridham Janve is an independent filmmaker and artist whose work moves between spirituality, history, myth, and the absurd. His filmmaking practice is expansive in vision yet intimate in scale, often working with non-actors and real locations. Within strong constraints and limited means, he approaches production as an act of discovery shaped by physical endurance, sustained attention, and chance. His films have screened at festivals such as Rotterdam, Jeonju, and BFI London, and his screenplays have been supported by platforms including La Fabrique Cinéma at Cannes and the APSA Film Fund. He also paints, as a quieter extension of his practice that allows the same search to continue in a more immediate and solitary form.