COUNTRY: India YEAR: 2022 RUNTIME: 97 min
DIRECTED BY: Shishir Jha
LANGUAGE(S): Santhali
SUBTITLES: English
CAST: Jagarnath Baskey, Mugli Baskey
SCRIPT: Shishir Jha
PRODUCED BY: Vinay Mishra, Pallavi Rohatgi, Preety Ali, Raghavan Bharadwaj
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Shishir Jha
EDITED BY: Shishir Jha
SCORE: Durga Prasad Murmu
SCREENINGS
SYNOPSIS
In a uranium mining area of Jharkhand, India, a tribal couple copes with the loss of their daughter. For them, the land and forest bear witness to their daughter’s memory.
With great sensitivity and beauty, the film explores the deeply intertwined connections between tribal communities and the forest that is their traditional home.
Deftly interweaving the vivid colors of their festivals, folk songs, and the sense of community that binds them together, TORTOISE UNDER THE EARTH is a poetic elegy to a world that is rapidly disappearing, subsumed by unchecked development and displacement.
Shishir Jha
Shishir Jha is a Mumbai-based filmmaker who was born in Bihar, India in 1988. He graduated from the National Institute of Design Ahmedabad with a Bachelor’s degree in Film & Video Communication Design.
Shishir Jha has made several short films, and TORTOISE UNDER THE EARTH is his first feature film.
Meghna (2009), Guddi (2011), Shuruaat Ka Interval (2014), The East Wind (2015), Te-amo (2016), Tortoise Under The Earth (2022)
PRODUCTION: Humara Medialabs
WORLD SALES: Shishir Jha