Busan Film Festival 2017: Manoj Bajpayee's In The Shadows, Shlok Sharma's Zoo to premiere

The line-up at the Busan Film Festival 2017 boasts of an eclectic range of films, from across the globe. Besides a couple of offbeat Hindi films that will be screened at the festival, the highlight of the 10-day extravaganza will also be the fact that films by female directors will open and close the festival.

Pune Mirror reports that Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane will present Shlok Sharma’s Zoo, the first-ever Indian feature film to be shot completely on a cell phone, at the festival. Zoo stars Shweta Tripathi and Shashank Arora in the lead roles. It revolves around the theme of the youth confining themselves to metaphorical cages, such as drugs. Tripathi plays a drug addict whereas Arora plays her peddler in the film.

Besides Zoo, Manoj Bajpayee’s In The Shadows will also premiere at the film festival. The film is a psychological drama about a man who is trapped within the city walls and in his own mind. He attempts to break free to find a human connection.

The cast also includes Indian actors Ranvir Shorey, Neeraj Kabi and Shahana Goswami along with Oscar-nominated Belgian actor Laura Verlinden.

Devashish Makhija’s Ajji has also been selected to be screened at the film festival. Ajji is a dark retelling of the fairy tale The Little Red Riding Hood and revolves around a nine year old victim of atrocities and her 65 year old grandmother who seeks the girl’s revenge.

Also, The Hollywood Reporter states that South Korean filmmaker Shin Suwon’s mystery drama Glass Garden will open the Busan Film Festival this year. The festival will wrap with a work by yet another female filmmaker, Chinese director Sylvia Chang’s Love Education. This year will mark the first time that the film festival will be both opened and closed by films directed by women.

The Busan Film Festival 2017 will take place from 12 to 21 October.

With inputs from IANS.