KATHMANDU

On September 8 those at the 80th edition of the Venice International Film Festival will get to watch Nepal's very own story - a reflection of "the spirit of the youth in Nepal today, who live in growing political and economic uncertainty" - in The Red Suitcase.

The directorial debut of Fidel Devkota, the 87-minute-long feature film is competing in the Orizzonti Competition of the prestigious festival, becoming the second Nepali feature film to do so after White Sun.

"Reaching this platform is the biggest achievement for us. Just to be on that platform is a rare moment for veteran directors of the world, I am but a debutant," Devkota said to The Himalayan Times from Berlin, Germany, when asked about his reaction to making it to the festival.

Not only for the filmmaker, it is also a very big achievement for the Nepali film industry, in the context that it the only South Asian film to make it to the competition this year.

Ram Krishna Pokharel. Photo Courtesy: Fidel Devkota

Ram Krishna Pokharel, one of its producers, a few days prior to heading to the film festival in Venice, Italy from the Capital candidly revealed they had only expected the film to make to the side bars at the festival. "We had applied for all official sections of the festival as well as for the side bars. We had hoped we will make it to the side bar as for first time directors they are a very good opportunity," shared Pokharel.

Kalo Pothi, that won the Best Film Award at Critics' Week of the 72nd Venice International Film Festival, was one of such side bars.

But for The Red Suitcase things did not happen as expected. The film was rejected for the festival's side bars. It was a week after this rejection that Pokharel got a call from the personal assistant of the Festival Director informing him that the film had been selected for the Orizzonti Competition - according to the festival website, it is an international competition dedicated to films that represent the latest aesthetic and expressive trends, with special attention to debut films, young talents, indie features and lesser-known cinema.

It was "shocking" for Pokharel while Devkota said, "In the context that we expected to only reach Venice, being selected for the Orizzonti was beyond our wildest imagination".

The film, as per Pokharel, is in competition for different awards - one of them is for debutant director in the entire festival, and the award money is $100,000.

As Nepal look forward to the film to make more noise at the festival, it's worth looking back at how this film was actually put together, the journey of these like-minded people in the world of film, and their love for it.

Story of the film

The festival's website narrates the film's synopsis as: "A pick-up truck driver leaves Kathmandu airport for a two-day drive with a delivery arriving from abroad to a remote mountain village. On the high road, a solitary figure slowly makes his way, wheeling a small red suitcase toward the same village."

It would be interesting to mention here that a photo published in Nepal Live online made Devkota venture into this film. "I saw a photo of a red suitcase that was kept beside a coffin in Kathmandu airport, and I got curious about what's in the red suitcase."

This curiosity was a result of his nature and he also related it to his own case. "Like many others I am also in a foreign land. I think if anything happens to me, what will happen to my possessions here. What's the meaning of things that I have saved for life - it's a philosophical, spiritual question." And the film probably explores this part.

The film is based on magic realism and probably the mysterious aspect of the film, its style of cinematography, shot in classical approach - long takes and static - could have appealed to many, as per Pokharel.

Not instant fame

Like every other filmmaker's dream, making it to the festival is no small achievement. It was totally unexpected, yet it was not an overnight success for these filmmakers.

"I have been in the film industry for the past 20 years," said Devkota who along with Pokharel studied Bachelor's degree at the College of Film Studies. They were classmates along with The Red Suitcase's Director of Photography (DoP), Sushan Prajapati.

Fidel Devkota. Photo Courtesy: Fidel Devkota

It is the first Nepali feature film shot by a Nepali DoP that has gone to the major film festival of the world, as per Pokharel.

Following their film studies, both Pokharel and Devkota have been with the Nepali film industry in one way or the other.

As a producer, Pokharel has worked in a number of short films including Awaken Eyes (Binod Poudel), Jha Lo (Shenang Gyamjo), Tattini (Abinash- Bikram Shah), Anhad (Niranjan Bhetwal), and Bagthan (Sunil Pandey) - they have made it to the different films festivals of the world including Busan, Rotterdam, among others. He is also the producer of Nepal's official entry to 2022 Oscars Aina Jhyalko Putali.

An expert in collaboration, he has worked not only with national filmmakers, but with international too - Saurav Rai's Guras being one of them. Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic invited the film at the Promixa Competition and it won the award.

The Red Suitcase though is a Nepal-made film in its entirety - they did the editing, colour grading, and final mastering in Sri Lanka in a friend's company, and later they joined Pokharel's team as producer - which is why it is now called Nepal, Sri Lanka production, as per the filmmaker.

Meanwhile, for Devkota, to find substance and content, he opted to pursue visual anthropology for his Master's and PhD needed for his stories. And the films he makes are the reflection of his anthropological resources and expertise as a filmmaker.

Interestingly, he wanted to debut as a feature film director via Kangling, that is in the works since 2017. As both Pokharel and Devkota shared during their interviews that there is no significant support (including funds) in Nepal for filmmakers from the state or other sectors, they were in search of funding.

"Location-wise Kangling is a high budget film. To apply for funding, the director's portfolio is need. Short films are needed for portfolio. So, I was writing short film discussing with Ram," revealed Devkota. The short film here he meant the current The Red Suitcase. When he shared his story in their small group of independent filmmakers that included Rai and Pokharel, the former suggested that it could easily be made into a feature film.

As such Devkota extended his "12-13 pages of short film script to 45-46 pages of the script for feature film".

After laying the foundation, he continued working on it and the Venice-bound The Red Suitcase came to the life.

Token of love

Both the director and producer have their own stories to tell of how the film's making processed.

Devkota, who said that he always writes script keeping in mind the actors he wants, had Saugat Malla and Bipin Karki in mind for their respective roles for The Red Suitcase. As for the role of Prabin Khatiwada, he was in Devkota's mind along with other actors.

But things progressed smoothly in the sense that Malla and Khatiwada, who are the director's friends agreed to do his film as did "Bipin (Karki) bhai", who Devkota had come to know during the Gurkul days. When he approached them with the script, he told them clearly: "Do this film if you are satisfied with the script, not because you are my friends."

They chose to work in the film, let the director "challenge them in a certain sense" and it was easy to work with them, for Devkota. When the fact that in many films we tend to see stars rather than actors when you have superstars as your actors, Devkota said, "In this film you will see more of the characters than Saugat or Bipin."

But how affordable were these actors? "We can say the actors did not take money for our film. Bipin (Karki) has said 'I haven't take a sing rupee for The Red Suitcase', in the context he charges Rs 50 lakh for one movie. So, this is a huge support for us," said Pokharel. That's probably because most actors have a craving to do good films that go beyond Nepal and Nepali audience, he pointed out.

Devkota added, "The actors know this film will not make money. But all the actors in the world are always greedy for good roles. They will never bargain for money for such roles."

Managing the finances

Nonetheless, to arrange for the film's finance, the producer sold his Hiace. "It was the time of COVID-19 and we had to shoot The Red Suitcase and Guras side by side. So, we sold the vehicle to address our financial needs," revealed Pokharel, while adding such art films do not earn money for him.

"You realise how important a role Ram plays to encourage Nepali filmmakers," Devkota commented in this context.

Pokharel rather earns from his business of providing production services to Hollywood, Bollywood, European, Japanese and other Asian films - be it arranging logistics like liaising with government for permissions for shooting, arranging local cast if needed, or even researching and presenting ideas in the case of documentaries via his company Icefall Productions, an independent film production company since 2009.

It was while providing such production services that Pokharel thought of making films "as we had developed a level of expertise working in such productions with foreigners. At the same time our industry was struggling, and not many good films were being made. I felt we should make original Nepali films based on the expertise we've learnt from foreigners".

Some of the major projects of Icefall Productions as per Pokharel are: Baby, Highway to Dhampus, The Climb, Everest: The Summit of the Gods along with making brand commercials and films for Google, Facebook among others.

"We make money doing such works and invest whatever money we make in local films, filmmakers. Otherwise we can't sustain. We are creating a kind of platform," said Pokharel while pointing out that Nepali filmmakers lack support.

One of Pokharel's goals since the beginning has remained to promote Nepal as a film destination as he feels the country has huge potential.

For the love of films

Independent arthouse cinema like The Red Suitcase is getting attention and good reviews but what made them get into the world of films? For Pokharel, it happened - as he started working as a translator in a trekking company and gradually transitioned to making films after completing his film studies.

For Devkota, he felt like "I am at home" when he reached the world of cinema. "I think it is a medium where I can express myself, I feel at ease. I am a terrible writer. I hardly write academic papers. But film stories come naturally to me. I don't have to pretend, the flow comes to me spontaneously."

For him cinema is the reflection of society. "It has to be connected in some way to society; when it is not connected, the audience do not reach the cinema hall. They should identify themselves with the characters," he said.

But that's not happening in our cinemas and he feels that the art is one of the basic needs of today's society and a form of identity, and it has to be instutionalised.

Meanwhile there is a need to develop the habit of watching films in children from their school days, as per him. Echoing a similar view, Pokharel added, "We should target the children and make films, the government should fund those projects so that we can retain our audience. The content today's children are watching is Disney, Marvel, Motu Patlu and such. They are not watching content made by Nepali filmmakers, or we have not made content for them. Nepali film industry will not exist in another 20 years if we do not address this."

Ultimately, they strive to make good films that "will be remembered for years" and the festival is definitely "a validation" as per Devkota which will open more avenues for them for future.