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Jungle Book Studio has acquired the international sales rights for Angh, the debut feature by Nagaland filmmaker Theja Rio. The film is set to make its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Set in the remote hills of Nagaland in the early 1960s, Angh follows a Konyak chief and his son, the last in their village yet to convert to Christianity. When an American missionary arrives, his presence disrupts their world and forces the father and son to confront a changing way of life. At its heart, Angh is a story of a father and son, reflecting the conflict between faith and tradition, modernity and memory, as they confront the loss of a way of life and a world that is slowly disappearing," read a press note. Shot on 16mm, the film features a cast that includes indigenous actors, alongside BAFTA Scotland-winning Shetland star Douglas Henshall as the American missionary. Angh marks the feature debut of Theja Rio, a filmmaker from Nagaland and an alumnus of the U.K.s National Film and Television School. His short film of the same name won a Special Jury Award at Clermont-Ferrand, while Ade (On a Sunday) premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and won best film at the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival. Director Theja said, Making Angh felt like a homecoming, an opportunity to reconnect with my roots and tell our stories through our own lens. Alongside me, Nancy has been part of this journey from the very beginning from the short film to what has now become my first feature. Having lived with these characters and this world for so long, they feel deeply familiar to both of us.. The film is produced by Nancy Nisa Beso and Theja Rio through their companies Winter Hymns Films and Undercover Squirrel, with Jungle Book Studio handling world sales and Jungle Book founder Gaurav Dhingra also serving as executive producer. Nancy said, This film comes from a strong desire to tell stories that are ours, said Beso. Angh is our way of honouring our people, preserving the stories carried by our ancestors, and reclaiming our own narrative while allowing it to find its place on the global stage. Theja has brought an extraordinary depth of vision and sensitivity to this story, and it has been deeply meaningful to build this film alongside him. Jungle Book Studios international sales foray is powered by Dhingras deep expertise as a producer spanning over two decades. His credits include TIFF premiering Faith Connections, sold in more than 20 territories; TIFF opening Angry Indian Goddesses, released theatrically in more than 67 countries and licensed worldwide by Netflix; Beyond the Known World, the first official India-New Zealand co-production; and Venice selection Stolen, released globally on Prime Video. Gaurav Dhingra, founder of Jungle Book Studio, said, Angh is a spectacular amalgamation of a global cinematic aesthetic and a deeply rooted Nagamese ethos. With both its director Theja Rio and producer Nancy Beso hailing from Nagaland, the film eschews the outsider gaze and the pitfalls of Orientalist exoticisation, authentically anchoring its narrative in an indigenous cultural lens shaped by lived experience. An indigenous story told by indigenous filmmakers, Angh represents some of the most exciting cinema emerging from Indias margins, with the potential to become a torchbearer for a new, truly global Indian cinema. As a World Sales Company, Jungle Book Studio can already envision Angh setting the international buyers circuit alight and sparking a buzz across territories. We are thrilled to champion this cinematic supernova and take it to audiences worldwide. (ANI)
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