CFF: Elephants in the Fog

Elephants in the Fog is screening at Phoenix Picturehouse on Thursday 29 October, as part of the cinema's ongoing film programme. It's the directorial debut of Abinash Bikram Shah, and it runs for 103 minutes.

The story is set in a small village in rural Nepal and follows Pirati, the matriarch of a Kinnar community — an ancient South Asian third-gender identity rooted in folklore and tradition. Pirati longs for a 'normal' life with the man she loves, but when one of her daughters disappears, she's forced to choose between her own desires and her responsibility to her chosen family. It's described as a heart-wrenching story of maternal devotion and a tactful celebration of unsung queerness.

For those who haven't spent much time with the Kinnar, the film gives you a window into a community and a gender identity that rarely make it onto the screen, and it does so through a very personal, family-focused story rather than a broad overview. The tension between Pirati's private longing and her public role as a matriarch is what drives the plot, and the disappearance of her daughter is what brings those two worlds into direct conflict.

It's a debut feature, so this is the first time Shah's work has reached a cinema screen. The screening is at Phoenix Picturehouse, a century-old cinema in Oxford with two screens and a friendly upstairs bar, so there's plenty of room to linger before or after the film. It runs for 103 minutes, and you can find tickets and session times on the Picturehouse website.