Angh

Set in the early 1960s in a remote jungle near the Indo-Burma border, Angh follows Anghba, the last surviving chief of a Nagaland village that has been deserted by its people. He remains behind with his ailing wife and non-speaking young son, holding on as the world around them shifts irrevocably.

The arrival of an American missionary (Douglas Henshall, Shetland) sets the region’s transformation in motion, leaving Anghba to guard the beliefs and customs that have been passed down through generations. What emerges is a haunting and intimate story of a father and son, the latter increasingly seduced by the comforts of the mission. The film avoids sentimentality, instead observing how conversion operates deliberately by offering gifts even as the local culture is reframed as deficient.

Theja Rio’s debut feature — strikingly photographed and built on a richly spatial sound design — follows the success of his short film of the same name, which won a special jury award at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in 2021. Shot on 16mm, the film’s grain seems to hold the passage of time. Texture is drawn from the spiritual and storytelling traditions of the Naga people.

Nagaland, an Indigenous region of Northeast India, has rarely been depicted on screen. Rio views the film as an offering, “A gesture of remembrance, of pride, and of presence. A way of saying that we are here, that we have always been here, and that our stories deserve to stand alongside the rest of the world.”

ROBYN CITIZEN

Content advisory: violence