KASHISH 2026 Narrative Features in Competition 

The best narrative feature award category includes narrative features completed after January 1, 2025 and having their Mumbai Premiere at KASHISH 2026. The award carries a KASHISH Golden Butterfly Trophy and a cash prize of Rs.30,000.

DREAMERS
Dir: Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor
85 MIN | 2025 | UK | English

After living undocumented in the UK for two years, Nigerian migrant Isio is arrested and sent to Hatchworth detention center. She hopes for a fair hearing on her asylum claim and is convinced that as long as she strictly follows the rules, she will be released—even though her charismatic new housemate, Farah, tells her this is a naive mistake. When Isio’s asylum claim is rejected, Farah proposes they run away together to give their love a chance.

Screening:
Saturday June 6, 5.45 PM | NGMA
Sunday June 7, 1.45 PM | Alliance Francaise

IVAN & HADOUM (Iván & Hadoum)
Dir: Ian de la Rosa
101 MIN | 2026 | Spain, Germany, Belgium | Spanish

The story follows Iván, a 33-year-old trans man working a low-level, physically demanding job in a greenhouse managed by his family connections. He is focused on securing a long-awaited promotion to improve his life and that of his family. When Hadoum, a Moroccan-Spanish woman, joins the company, the two develop a passionate and tender romance. However, their relationship faces significant pressure from the harsh environment of the factory, where labor rights are virtually non-existent, and workers are often subjected to dangerous conditions. As Hadoum tries to fight against these injustices, organizing complaints, Iván is pushed by the owners to move into management, placing his career aspirations directly in conflict with his loyalty to her.

Screening: Saturday June 6, 12.30 PM | Liberty Cinema

THE CROWD (Jamaat)
Dir: Sahand Kabiri
70 MIN | 2025 | Iran | Persian

Hamed, an upper middle class Iranian gay, decides to hold an underground party with his friends on the occasion of his partner’s migration in the abandoned garage of their family, but his orthodox brother finds out about his party and tries to stop him.

Filmed independently over 12 days in Tehran under extreme secrecy and personal risk that’s common to Iran’s underground cinema, this work remains largely unknown.

Screening: Thursday June 4, 5.45 PM | Alliance Française

WARLA
Dir: Kevin Zarate Alambra
73 MIN | 2025 | Philippines | English

Young Kitkat is taken in by Joice, leader of a group of transgender women who kidnap foreigners to fund gender-affirming surgeries they believe will let them live as their true selves. Unlike them, Kitkat does not feel the need to change her body to be a woman. As she finds a fragile sense of belonging, she is also forced to confront the group’s harsh choices.

Loosely based on a true story, this social-realist drama examines how those long preyed upon can become perpetrators in their search for agency.

Screening: Sunday June 7, 11.45 AM | Alliance Française

WHISPERINGS OF THE MOON
Dir: Yuqing Lai
85 MIN | 2025 | Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India | Central Khmer

After her father’s death, theatre actor Nisay returns from New York to Phnom Penh, where she unexpectedly reunites with Thida, her former lover. Moving between the present, seven years after their separation, and the past they shared on stage, the film traces a love once fully expressed in performance but left unresolved in life. Blending intimate moments with acting workshops, it explores identity, memory, and self-expression.

Through its handheld, fluid camera, Whisperings of the Moon immerses us in Nisay’s inner world, capturing the uncertainty and emotional complexity of seeing and understanding oneself.

Screening: Friday June 5, 10.00 AM | NGMA