Cannes 2024: FTII's Maisam Ali On His Debut Film In Retreat As India's First-Ever ACID Entry
NDTV
Maisam Ali said, "I was hopeful that someone or other in France will take a liking to my film"
Maisam Ali, who learnt the ropes at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), is going where no Indian director has gone before - to ACID Cannes, a section that has been showcasing and promoting independent cinema since the early 1990s.
The delicately crafted, steadfastly minimalistic In Retreat, Ali's fiction feature debut, is the first-ever title from the world's largest film-producing nation in the ACID Cannes selection. It is one of nine films in the section's 2024 programme.
"I was hopeful that someone or other in France will take a liking to my film," says Ali, who was born in Iran, where his physician-father worked for the public health service before returning to Ladakh when his son was eight years old. "My short films have screened in small French festivals in the past."
