7.11.2025, 17:00, Maxx 3
EN UT
9.11.2025, 13:00, Maxx 2
EN UT + KONTEXT TALK
«I wanted to completely destroy any semblance of a realistic development, so that I could construct the film almost in the manner of a painter.» (Mani Kaul, At the Flaherty, New York, 1994)
Recognized and cherished as one of the most formally pathbreaking filmmakers of India, Mani Kaul was a key figure of the New Indian Cinema movement that emerged in the late 1960s. The three short films in this selection display a formalist rigour that views and understands cinema through an expanded lens that includes the principles of painting, literature, and the musical form of Dhrupad.
Following Sunday’s screening, there will be a conversation with Deepti DCunha and Iyesha Geeth Abbas about Mani Kaul’s influence on Indian short filmmaking from the Indian New Wave to contemporary trends.

Arrival
Mani Kaul / India 1979 / 19' / colour / English / Doc
Addressing the arrival of natural products, such as vegetables and live stock, as well as human labour into a city from rural areas, this film explores the relationship between product, commodity, and exchange value. Representing in itself one variety of exchange value, money as capital destroys the natural specificity of people and things. In the process, the labourer is reduced to a mere commodity.

The Cloud Door
Mani Kaul / Germany/India 1994 / 28'31" / DCP / colour / Hindi / Fic
A very clever parrot lives in a Hindu palace, surrounded by many beautiful girls. But the parrot escapes and is trapped far from the palace. One day, when its new owner is sleeping, the bird convinces a young boy to open the cage door. In return, it shows the boy a secret passage to get into the palace.

Before My Eyes
Mani Kaul / India 1989 / 26' / DCP / colour / no dialogue / Doc
A film commissioned by the Tourist Board of Jammu and Kashmir. In his own words, Mani Kaul’s film is «a filmscape study of the Kashmir Valley without any commentary or dialogue, made without reducing the natural dimensions of the valley to identifiable holiday commodities».