Rising Kerala director Kunjila Mascillamani has got selected from hundreds of applications into TIFF Directors' Lab 2025.
She gained admission on the basis of her latest screenplay, The Last of Them Plagues (Guptam)
The project was earlier selected at Film Bazaar's Co-Production Market in 2024.
Kerala filmmaker Kunjila Mascillamani has been selected as one of only 16 filmmakers worldwide for the Toronto International Film Festival’s Directors’ Lab, earning the recognition with her upcoming project The Last of Them Plagues (Guptam).
In the program, participants will receive five days of training and skill development under international mentors and top filmmakers. Outstanding participants may also be bestowed with fellowships guaranteeing production support. The feature debut of Mascillamani, Guptam has already been boarded by a raft of producers which includes Payal Kapadia, Jeo Baby, Kani Kusruti, Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal.
The synopsis reads: “When her younger daughter disappears in a graveyard, a single mother is forced to move to a conservative, religious, small town in Kerala, where she launches a desperate search for the child. Soon, a series of mysterious and disastrous incidents plague the region, and the townsfolk turn against her, convinced she has brought god's wrath upon them. Now, she must fight to clear her name while coping with grief and struggling to care for her surviving daughter.”
In her director’s statement, Mascillamani writes, “The idea for Guptam came to me in my late twenties, when like many women, I had an ‘epiphany’ – that my mother was a remarkably resilient woman and a trailblazer in her own way. I wondered at her superhuman efforts to raise two girls all by herself in a highly moralistic society like Keralam. We see women like her in every part of this country – accidental revolutionaries who had no choice but to fight. We know about strong women like Erin Brockovich, but where are the stories of single mothers like mine or yours? Guptam is a tribute to their battles.”
Mascillamani's short film Asamghadithar (The Unorganised), which was part of the anthology Freedom Fight, received a Special Jury Mention at the 2023 Kerala State Film Awards.
TIFF 2025 runs from September 4th to 14th.
Tags
