After ‘Titli’, ‘True Love Story’ at Cannes film fest

Kanu Behl’s Titli won’t be the only Indian movie to be screened during the forthcoming Festival de Cannes (14-25 May). Acclaimed animator Gitanjali Rao’s new short, True Love Story, will be shown at Cannes Critics Week, a parallel competition section at the prestigious festival that showcases and awards first and second films.

Behl’s debut feature Titli, a Delhi-based drama, will be a part of Un Certain Regard, the festival’s non-competitive section aimed at showcasing titles with a firm artistic stamp.

This is Rao’s second stint with Critics Week—her second short film Printed Rainbow was shown there in 2006. She also served as a jury member at Critics Week three years ago. True Love Story, an 18-minute short that won the top prize in its category (animation film) at the Mumbai International Film Festival held in February, upturns the formulaic Hindi movie boy-meets-girl romance on its head. Free of dialogue but suffused with haunting images and the cacophony of Mumbai, Rao’s film explores the emotional arc of a flower-seller who loses his heart to a bar dancer. The film-maker will also be contributing to Sexperiences, an forthcoming French-funded erotic film project with contributions from around the world.