Sayani Gupta’s #Homecoming opens the Gange Sur Seine Film Festival in Paris

Actor-director Soumyajit Majumdar’s directorial venture #Homecoming was released in 2022. The film which features Sayani Gupta, Hussain Dalal, Tushar Pandey, Soham Majumder, Plabita Barthakur, and others had a successful festival run. Now, the film will open the Gange Sur Seine Film Festival – an International Independent Indian Film Festival – which will take place at Le Lincoln in Paris between October 5 and 8. Besides, it is also the official selection at Dubai’s META Film Fest which will take place between November 8 and 12. 

Meanwhile, a London-based production and distribution company Moringa Entertainment owned by Munsur Ali, (Chairman, London City Corporation Culture, Heritage and Libraries Committees) is presenting special screenings of the film in the UK during October-November as part of the broader tie-up of Moringa and LOK for facilitating Indo-UK cultural collaborations.

Also read: Sayani Gupta on her Tollywood debut: I waited for the right sort of beginning | Exclusive 

The film is an independent venture of Soumyajit who wrote, directed, and produced the film. Talking about its journey, he said, “Even after one and a half years from its release as a direct-to-digital on SonyLiv, #Homecoming continues to break conventions. I am glad to embark on the last leg of the film festival round and international screening tour of #Homecoming across the UK, France, and Dubai.” Talking about his journey in the world of cinema, the director further added, “The door to world cinema had opened up for me after watching French new wave cinema of greats like Truffaut, Godard, Agnes Varda and Eric Rohmer. The French New Wave is instrumental in shaping my artistic aesthetics. Screening my debut feature film as a writer-director-producer In Paris at an iconic cinema with French subtitles as the opening film of a film festival will be a memory of a lifetime. I will be back in India in December to start pre-production of my next film.” 

Also read: Exclusive! Soham Majumder: I don’t think I am a great actor, but I try to portray my character with full honesty 

Chayan Sarkar, Founder and Artistic Director of the festival Gange Sur Seine, said that #Homecoming reinforces the constant inner urge of an individual living far away to reconnect back to their cultural, artistic, and linguistic heritage.” The film depicts the deep theatrical passion and intellectual dimension of Kolkata artistes particularly a tradition that's finding it hard to survive. This has high emotions, drama, social challenges and dilemmas, beautiful music, and interesting characters that paint a modern Kolkata which is going through a transition of cultural values and renewed identity. You never feel that it is the filmmaker’s debut feature.”

The film delves into the lives of a group of friends, who had formed a popular yet short-lived youth theatre group. They reunite for the first time after seven years on an eventful Durga Puja evening at their old rehearsal space, a bungalow that is about to be converted into Kolkata’s first five-star heritage hotel by the Ganges. How they manoeuvre through their past life – heartbreaks and sense of betrayal – is the crux of the story. It won the Best Film, Best Director, and Best Actress Awards at the 19th annual South Asian International Film Festival, New York, Best Asian Film at the Tokyo Film Awards, Best Debutant Director and Best Costume Design at Jaipur International Film Festival, and so on. It was screened at more than 20 film festivals globally.