Aneek Chaudhuri’s silent feature film Cactus has been selected in the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne in Beyond The Bollywood section along with Rima Das’s Bulbul Can Sing, Praveen Morchhale’s Widow of Silence, Devashish Makhija's Bhonsle.
Featuring Anurupa Chakraborty, Aparajita Dey and Aisahni De, Cactus premiered at the REAKTOR Indian Film Festival in Vienna this March. The film was also nominated for Rome Independent Film Awards and had a screening at the Marché du Film market at the Cannes Film Festival this May.
The film is based on various stigmas around religion and presents Jesus Christ as a female. Apart from the lives of Mother Mary and Jesus, the director has also drawn inspiration from Michelangelo’s Pieta to conceptualise the film.
Cactus doesn’t follow a linear narrative and quite abstract in its form. The film has been widely appreciated for its stunning visuals, the credit of which goes to cinematographers Snehasis Mitra and Sourideb Chatterjee and editor Shibam Samanta.
“The film has received backlash in the country and beyond for creating a blasphemy because we have portrayed Jesus Christ as a female. There was a debate as well on the issue on a national news channel,” Chaudhuri stated.
The director confirmed that the film will be streaming on digital platform this October.