BELA

By Prantik BASU

RIVERINE FILMS - as PROD / FIN

Documentary - Completed 2021

Art, ritual and labour constitute a continuous choreography of daily life in a village in eastern India.

Festivals
& Awards

Visions du Réel 2021
Rotterdam IFFR 2021
    • Year of production
    • 2021
    • Genres
    • Documentary, Art - Culture
    • Countries
    • INDIA
    • Languages
    • BENGALI
    • Duration
    • 59 mn
    • Director(s)
    • Prantik BASU
    • Synopsis
    • In Bela, an indigenous village in eastern India, the men practice Chhau, a traditional masked folk dance, while the women frequent the nearby forest to gather dry leaves and firewood. In the local language, Bela means time. Shot over two years and edited as two consecutive days, the film is an intimate observation of the rhythms and rituals of art and labour, the feminine and the masculine, and the ambiguous thresholds between them.