It literally took a village for Jayant Digambar Somalkar to make his debut film Sthal (A Match), set in his childhood home in his native village, and starring non-actors from the region.
The Marathi film, which earlier this year became the only Indian film to be chosen for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in the festival’s discovery programme (for new filmmakers), won the NETPAC award for the best Asian film, and is being screened in the Kaleidoscope section of the 28th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK).
“I wanted this film to be very authentic and real. While writing the film, I was visualising the places I have known and thinking a lot about my Dongargaon village located in the cotton belt of Vidarbha region in Maharashtra,” says Somalkar in an interview to The Hindu.
