The Gold-Laden Sheep And The Sacred Mountain, That Cloud Never Left to compete at Rotterdam

Ridham Janve's The Gold-Laden Sheep And The Sacred Mountain and Yashaswini Raghunandan's That Cloud Never Left are making their way to Rotterdam to compete in the prestigious Dutch festival in this new year.

Both films will be competing in the Bright Future section alongside 20 other features at the festival.

Janve's Gaddi-language film will be making its international premiere while That Cloud Never Left is having its world premiere at the festival.

Last year, Yashaswini was selected for a two-year residency at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. The programme, consisting of around 50 artistes, gives them a space to research, experiment and produce their own work.

Janve's mystical film, set in Himachal Pradesh, tells the story of an old shepherd who sets out to seek the pilot of a crashed airplane in the harsh mountains. It explores certain age-old legends of the region whose presence cannot be fully explained.

The film competed at the India Gold section at the 20th Mumbai Film Festival last October and was also screened at the Dharamshala International Film Festival in November 2018.

The Gold-Laden Sheep And The Sacred Mountain review: Gorgeous but slow-moving parable

The Gold-Laden Sheep And The Sacred Mountain has already won the Prasad DI award at the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) Film Bazaar in 2016 and also picked up the Silver Gateway award at the Mumbai Film Festival.

NFDC will be presenting the film, which is produced by Mountain Motion Pictures and Dark Matter Pictures.

In a statement, first-time filmaker Janve shared his happiness at the film's international premiere. "[Rotterdam] is the ideal place to show an unconventional film like ours," he said. "NFDC coming on board as co-producers on the film is such great news for us. Right from Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (1983) to The Lunchbox (2013), NFDC has produced several films that I have admired and to now be part of that repertoire is an honour.

“I want to thank everyone who walked this long journey with us and climbed this big misty mountain, especially all the people from the Gaddi community without whom this film wouldn't have been possible,” he added.

Another Indian film, Praveen Morchhale's Widow Of Silence, will also have its European premiere as part of the festival's Voices Main Programme.

In 2017, Sanal Kumar Sasidharan’s S Durga won the Hivos Tiger award at the festival, becoming first Indian film to do so.