The London Indian Film Festival (LIFF) will be kicking off its 2021 series of films marking LGBT+ History Month with a screening of Sridhar Rangayan’s feature film Evening Shadows (2019). The film has won more than 20 international awards and has travelled the festival circuit extensively, having been selected by 72 film festivals across the world.
Evening Shadows is set in a small town in Southern India, where a young man comes out to his mother and examines the upheaval it causes within the family and society. Directed by Indian filmmaker Rangayan, a gay rights activist, it underlines the challenges gay men continue to face in India to come out to their family while questioning dominant patriarchal social mores.
Speaking about the film’s selection at the United Kingdom and Europe’s largest South Asian film festival, Rangayan said, “The team of Evening Shadows and I are thrilled to be screening at the prestigious London Indian Film Festival, and we thank them for according our film the honour of kickstarting their series. We feel triumphant that the film continues its successful festival journey three years since its world premiere in 2018 at Sydney’s Mardi Gras Film Festival. The film’s topic is surely as relevant as it was three years ago, and will continue to remain so till the time homophobia is eradicated from every society in the world.
“Evening Shadows offers a rainbow of hope not only for LGBT+ persons but more importantly to their parents who struggle to come to terms with their children’s sexuality,” he added.
The film will be screened virtually on LIFF’s platform on 28th February. The film is available to UK residents only.