Indian Narrative Shorts IN COMPETITION

Chitthi explores the idea of alienation through a queer lens as well as the consequences of such subordination. The story unfolds itself through a letter, where the protagonist (the narrator) equates the loss of his lover with a man he sees in his dreams. Unaware of what has happened to his lover, whether he has gone missing or been a victim to of a hate crime; he asks his mother how to cope with such a loss.

IF
(Original Title: যদি )
Director: Tathagata Ghosh
26 min | 2023 | India | Bengali

Jaya and Fatima, two women in love, are separated because of Jaya’s marriage arranged by her conservative father. Trapped and helpless, Jaya is about to give up, when life suddenly brings her to a strange crossroad.

IYKYK (If You Know You Know)
Director: Bonita Rajpurohit
18 min | 2024 | India | Hindi, English

Everyone seems to have a different approach to the elephant in the room; her Gender Identity. Address it or ignore it. No one seems to have a clue how to go about it. We follow a series of dates, Kusum goes on.

Ajay and Utkarsh, a sero-discordant live in couple who happily live in Mumbai. While Ajay is open about his relationship and HIV status as a HIV positive man, Utkarsh is still not open about his relationship with Ajay. One fine day, during a live streaming when Ajay was sharing his story of a HIV positive person, Utkarsh confesses his love for Ajay.

Forty-eight-year-old Lakshmikant Sharma lives in Old Lucknow with his wife, daughter and widowed mother, living a life that is the textbook definition of monotony. Except it isn’t. Lakshmi wants to wear Sarees, put on her favourite shade of pink lipstick and live like a woman.