Cinema Reborn Festival – Ishanou(1991) in Melbourne

Cinema Reborn Film Festival is an annual festival developed by a community of cinema enthusiasts, programmers, filmmakers, screen historians and critics. The festival’s focus is on screen heritage and preservation and is intended to shine a light on the long history of the art of the cinema, the world-wide activity of film restoration and the treasures that exist in the world’s film archives.

Cinema Reborn’s 2024 festival will take in Melbourne at Lido Cinemas Hawthorn from the 9th of May.

The Indian film to be screened is ISHANOU/THE CHOSEN ONE. Tampha is living a quiet, normal life with her husband and daughter in a Manipuri valley in North-Eastern India when she suddenly starts talking to flowers, singing strange songs, having dizzy spells and wandering alone at night. After attempts to diagnose her condition, her mother and her husband finally realize she is The Chosen One (Inshanou). Called by a deity to join a Maibi sect of princesses, she becomes absorbed into a beautiful, mystical and spiritual world of expert singers and dancers – preservers of ancient oral religious traditions. Screened at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, Aribam Syam Sharma’s poignant and celebrated insight into Maibi culture has been restored in 4K by the Film Heritage Foundation (Mumbai) at L’Immagine Ritrovato (Bologna) and by Prasad (Chennai).

Introduced by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur via video at Ritz Cinemas and Lido Cinemas.