Manikbabur Megh only Indian film selected for Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival's First Features section

The 25th edition of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival will take place from 12 to 28 November in the Estonian city as well as virtually.

The organizers have announced its First Features competition line-up, which showcases the works of first-time directors.

The only Indian movie to make the line-up is Abhinandan Banerjee’s Bengali film Manikbabur Megh (The Cloud And The Man), which will have its world premiere at the festival.

The film stars Chandan Sen, Arun Guha Thakurta, Nemai Ghosh, Debesh Roy Choudhury and Bratya Basu.

In an interview with Cinestaan earlier this year, Banerjee said, “I believe there are two kinds of filmmakers, those who make films to establish themselves as filmmakers and those who cannot help but make films. I belong to the latter category. I am not looking forward to becoming just a filmmaker. Hence, if I require the medium of cinema to tell my stories, I will be back with my films.”

Speaking about this year’s selection, festival director Tiina Lokk said in a statement, "Let’s face it — making a debut feature film isn’t easy in the best of times. But it’s the pressure that makes diamonds. We saw enough debuts, of sufficiently high quality, that we could have filled up two competition programmes of First Features this year. It’s a genuine sadness that we can’t give all of these new directors and their unique films the platform they deserve. What we do have is a real celebration of cinema and a feast for the senses."

The organizers have said they will announce the full schedule of the festival in November.