Tortoise Under the Earth
The South Asian Film Festival of Montreal (MSFF) is dedicated to exploring and introducing Montreal audiences to the work of filmmakers of South Asian origin. This 13th edition is an opportunity to discover many recent works, both documentary and fiction, that focus on the Indian subcontinent and its diaspora.
In a uranium mining area of Jharkhand, India, a tribal couple copes with the loss of their daughter. For them, the land and forest bear witness to their daughter’s memory. With great sensitivity and beauty, the film explores the deeply intertwined connections between tribal communities and the forest that is their traditional home. Deftly interweaving the vivid colors of their festivals, folk songs, and the sense of community that binds them together, Tortoise Under the Earth is a poetic elegy to a world that is rapidly disappearing, subsumed by unchecked development and displacement.
Shishir Jha
Shishir Jha is a Indian filmmaker known for Tortoise Under the Earth (2022) and Shuruaat Ka Interval (2014).
Presented in collaboration with
