Bergman tribute Et Tu, Mr. Gonzalves? heads to Stockholm City Film Festival

Saurav Mookherji's short film Et Tu, Mr. Gonzalves? has been picked as one of the semifinalists for December 2021 at the year-round Stockholm City Film Festival.

Written and directed by Mookherji, the film is a product of a group of film students paying tribute to the late Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. It will be screened at the festival later this month.

Of the decision to make the film, the team said, "Bergman's unconventional realism is what defines him as a maverick. His primary focus was not mortality and its aftermath, but the redeeming power of love, desire and faith. His relation with unrequited love and passion within isolation and rejection helped us create this story." 

They added, "The film narrates the conception of humane obsession in the form of a man who creates a relative alternate reality. It also focuses on the anomalies related to the obsession and its destined annihilation. The backdrop setting, the contrasting sound and images accentuate an individual's solitude across every conceivable way and distinguish it as a global narrative and not just a regional-specific film."

Conceived in 2017, the film was completed in 2021, with the pandemic proving to be the bookend for the project. Describing its selection for the festival, the team said, "We had got a chance to screen our film at the Industrial Screening section of the prestigious NFDC [National Film Development Corporation] Film Bazaar (2021). Being a semifinalist at the Stockholm City Film Festival in Sweden is an honour for all of us, and when the consulate of Sweden in Mumbai appreciates our achievement and acknowledges our effort with their tweet, it is surely a cherry on top."

The Stockholm City Film Festival is a new festival that has been n existence for about two years and aims to promote and encourage short, feature and documentary films from across the world by giving them an opportunity to be showcased in the Swedish capital.

Correction, 15 January 2022: An earlier version of this report said the film was completed in 2019 and screened at the NFDC Film Bazaar the same year. It was in fact completed and screened in 2021.