Irfana Majumdar’s debut Shankar’s Fairies to be premiered at Locarno Film Festival

Irfana Majumdar’s debut feature Shankar’s Fairies will have its world premiere at the 74th Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland next month.

The Hindi film will be showcased in the Concorso Cineasti del Presente section of the festival.

Shankar's Fairies will compete with 14 other features from around the world, most of which are also first features.

Shankar’s Fairies, which stars Jaihind Kumar and Shreeja Mishra, is set in 1960s Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. The film tells the story of a privileged girl and her relationship, based on stories and imagination, with the family servant Shankar.

The film had been selected as part of the National Film Development Corporation's Work-In-Progress Lab 2019 and was presented through NFDC's Film Bazaar at the Cannes Marché du Films last year.

The Locarno Film Festival is holding a physical edition this time around and will open with the world premiere of the Netflix film Beckett, directed by Ferdinando Cito Filomarino and starring John David Washington and Alicia Vikander.

The Aretha Franklin biopic Respect, starring Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson, and the Ryan Reynolds action film Free Guy will also be showcased at the festival, which will be held from 4–14 August.