With mainstream films competing for Oscar nominations, good news comes from the Assam region in India. An Assamese short film has now qualified for the Oscars race. Titled Mur Ghurar Duronto Goti, the film is directed by a 27-year-old, Maharshi Tuhin Kashyap. The film’s title translates to The Horse From Heaven. 

The 15-minute short film tells the story of a man who believes that he has the world’s fastest horse. While he dreams to win all the races in the city, the audience finds out that his horse is actually a donkey! The film will compete for an Oscar nomination in the short film fiction category. “Now that we have succeeded in qualifying for the entry, it is a dream come true,” says Kashyap.

The selection process for short films is different from that of feature films. To send a short film to the Oscars, it has to first win an eligible award at an Oscar-qualifying film festival. In India, Bengaluru International Short Film Festival (BISFF) is the only festival qualified for the same. The winners at this festival can compete in the International and Indian competition section for Oscars in the Short Film Fiction category. 

Along with Tuhin Kashyap, the film was made as a college project by the final year students of Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI), Kolkata. It was sent as an Oscar nominee after the offering recently won the best film award at the BISFF. The film was shot inside the campus at the institute’s studio as well as on the outskirts of the city.

The film’s script is loosely inspired by Assam’s 600-year-old dying story-telling art form Ojapali. “I felt that this form can be very interesting to express our story in the film. It is a formal attempt to translate the traditional storytelling form of Ojapali to the cinema. Ojapali performers refer to elements from the modern world and contextualize the stories in the space where they are performing,” he added.

The film has already traveled to many film festivals including the Kolkata International Film Festival, Himalayan Film Festival, Jaipur International Film Festival, and Deep Focus Student Film Festival among many others. It was also screened as part of a special curation on Transfigured Boundaries at Cineteca National Museum, Mexico.

(Featured Image Credits: IMDb)