Lorni - the Flaneur

Country: India
City: Shillong
Year: 2019
Languages: Khasi, Hindi, English
Run time: 107 Min

Shem (Adil Hussain), an out of work, self-styled detective with a sharp sense of the streets escapes the lethargy of his town when he is asked to investigate the disappearance of an object worthy of great cultural value. Navigating narrow streets and dark alleys, he embarks on an emotional and mental journey reflective of his reality and that of Shillong. Like the quintessential flaneur, he manoeuvres the real and the imaginable to further complicate the personal, the political and the emotional.

This film was supported by a grant from India Foundation for the Arts, under the Arts Practice programme.

 

Director’s Bio: Wanphrang K Diengdoh is an independent film maker and founder of red dur, a production space for films and music. In 2009, he was awarded the public arts grant from the Foundation of Indian Contemporary arts for his installation Kali Kamai. In 2011, his debut short film ’19/87′ bagged Best Film, Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography at the Guwahati International Short Film Festival. In 2013, he was awarded the ‘Early Career Film Fellowship’ from TISS, Mumbai, for his documentary proposal ‘Where the Clouds End’ – a documentary about tribal identity and border politics. In 2015, he directed ;Between the Forest and the Song’, a film that explores the song naming tradition in Kongthong Village and the implications of modernity and the media in tribal spaces. In 2017, he released ‘Because We Did not Choose’, a film on the participation of tribal labour in the First World War. Wanphrang also co-wrote and edited ‘My Name is Eeooow’. The film was awarded the prestigious Intangible Culture prize at the Royal Anthropological Institute’s Ethnographic Film Festival, UK and Best Film at the Film Festival della Lessinia in 2017. When not making films, Wanphrang writes poetry and produces music. ‘Lorni-the Flaneur’ is his first feature length fiction after dealing with the non-fiction form for almost a decade. The film premiered at Tallinn Black Nights Film festival and was the only entry from India in the First Feature Category. It was also nominated for Best Screenplay and Best Actor at the New York Indian Film Festival and the Audience Award at the Bagri London Indian Film Festival, 2021.

Director’s Bio: Wanphrang K Diengdoh is an independent film maker and founder of red dur, a production space for films and music. In 2009, he was awarded the public arts grant from the Foundation of Indian Contemporary arts for his installation Kali Kamai. In 2011, his debut short film ’19/87′ bagged Best Film, Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography at the Guwahati International Short Film Festival. In 2013, he was awarded the ‘Early Career Film Fellowship’ from TISS, Mumbai, for his documentary proposal ‘Where the Clouds End’ – a documentary about tribal identity and border politics. In 2015, he directed ;Between the Forest and the Song’, a film that explores the song naming tradition in Kongthong Village and the implications of modernity and the media in tribal spaces. In 2017, he released ‘Because We Did not Choose’, a film on the participation of tribal labour in the First World War. Wanphrang also co-wrote and edited ‘My Name is Eeooow’. The film was awarded the prestigious Intangible Culture prize at the Royal Anthropological Institute’s Ethnographic Film Festival, UK and Best Film at the Film Festival della Lessinia in 2017. When not making films, Wanphrang writes poetry and produces music. ‘Lorni-the Flaneur’ is his first feature length fiction after dealing with the non-fiction form for almost a decade. The film premiered at Tallinn Black Nights Film festival and was the only entry from India in the First Feature Category. It was also nominated for Best Screenplay and Best Actor at the New York Indian Film Festival and the Audience Award at the Bagri London Indian Film Festival, 2021.