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TUNGRUS
  • TUNGRUS

    INDIA 13 MIN, 2018

    RUSSIAN PREMIERE

     

    APRIL 5, 17:00

    MOSCOW, CINEMA OCTOBER

    • ABOUT

      The documentary observes a week in the peculiar lives of a middle-class suburban Mumbai household. What was once a home like a million others in the city, turns topsy-turvy when the eccentric patriarch brings home a baby chick for his cats to play with, much to the exasperation of his family. What follows is an alternatingly absurd, nerve-jangling and heart-warming set of accounts about the latest addition, from each member of the household. The once adorable chick has survived his early days and grown into a hell-raising, willful rooster – forever taking up a touch too much of their space, defecating on their spotless floors, bullying their cats, crowing at ungodly hours, and generally making life in the already-crowded apartment unlivable. The film follows the thoughts of each person to their inevitable conclusion – the rooster’s got to go. And as his fate hangs in the balance, the family debates the question that lingers in the air: should he be given the gift of life, or served for dinner?

    • DIRECTOR

      RISHI CHANDNA

       

      An independent filmmaker based out of Mumbai. After apprenticing under various filmmakers in the country, he founded his own production company in 2013, Shoot Up Pictures. As a producer and director, his work ranges from commercials and digital videos to documentaries and art installations, for marketeers, advertising agencies and NGOs. 'Tungrus' is his first independent short film.

    • OTHER FESTIVALS

      • Visions Du Reel 
      • Hot Docs 
      • IDFA 
      • BFI London 
      • Palm Springs Shortfest 
      • Short Shorts & Asia 
      • Tallinn Black Nights 
      • Slamdance Film Festival 
      • Krakow Film Festival 
      • Rhode Island IFF
    • DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

      I grew up in a city, in a meat-eating family, where we ate chicken at least thrice a week. As a small boy, my mother would often send me to the local butcher to buy meat, and I was fascinated by the sight of chickens being slaughtered, without any fuss or bother. So, while growing up, I never thought of chickens as pets, the way we think of dogs and cats as pets. It was always an animal meant for consumption, without any guilt or remorse. When I heard about a middle-class family living with a rooster as their pet in a tiny apartment in Mumbai, it struck me as absurd. While such a thing may be conventional in a rural environment, it was unheard of in an urban household. By the time I met the family, they had been living with a full grown rooster for six months and it had turned their lives upside down with its crowing, pooping, terrorizing of the cats, and other such antics. They knew that they couldn’t keep it as a pet any longer - it had to go from the house. But in this time, the family had also developed a strange attachment and familiarity with the animal. And now they were divided over letting it live, or killing and eating it. Tungrus (pronounced: Toongroos) is first and foremost a human story, because each character in the film must probe the nature of affection, of loyalty, and even the ethics of eating another creature. And because we use animals as reflections of human consciousness, Tungrus is also an ironic testimony to human folly, and is meant to give the viewer food for thought (pun intended). The film can be read as a subverted impression of the man-animal conflict that pervades society.

    • SECTION

      DOKer 2019 — Short Competition

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