30. Film Festival della Lessinia
Bosco Chiesanuova (Italia)
23 August - 1 September 2024

In a remote Nepalese village, the only remaining inhabitants are an elderly farming couple. After the unexpected departure of their last neighbour,  Atimaley and Devi make a puppet with wood and cloth to drive away their loneliness and protect the memory of what has been.  It, too, will take its place in the empty village, where friends and neighbours of the couple, now long gone, are remembered through evocative statues of musicians and dancers. These images, like part of a dreamlike vision, come to life to the rhythm of drums. At dusk, the two head home and with a last glance toward the enchanted village wrapped in smokey clouds, face the bitter, yet inevitable, dilemma of their future. 

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  Pooja Gurung

  Pooja Gurung has worked for six years in Kathmandu with Bibhusan Basnet. Their first short film, The Contagious Apparitions of Dambarey Dendrite (2013), was chosen by many important international festivals, from  Abu Dhabi to Venice, and won a prize at the Asian festival for short film Alpavirama. Dadyaa (2016) is their second short, and they are currently working on the feature film The Whole-Timers, with support from the Cinéfondation in Cannes.
  

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  Bibhusan Basnet

  Bibhusan Basnet has worked for six years in  Kathmandu with Pooja Gurung. Their first short film, The Contagious Apparitions of Dambarey Dendrite (2013), was chosen by many important international festivals, from  Abu Dhabi to Venice, and won a prize at the Asian festival for short film Alpavirama. Dadyaa (2016) is their second short, and they are currently working on the feature film The Whole-Timers, with support from the Cinéfondation in Cannes.