ENTANGLEMENT, 32min,. India, Fantasy
Directed by Yashaswini Nath
A couple struggles to make sense of the past, and their vastly different versions of the bizarre event that made their relationship spin out of control.
Get to know the filmmaker:
1. What motivated you to make this film?
I had been writing scripts to turn into my first film, but out of everything I’d written, this story spoke to me with the greatest immediacy. The idea came to me in bits and pieces as philosophical themes and metaphysical ruminations. Musings about emotional consequences of people and events we can’t quite make sense of, and psychological implications of realities we aren’t familiar or comfortable with. I wanted to put these questions out there to a larger audience.
2. From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film?
Turning the idea into a script and figuring out pre-production happened fairly quickly. What really took time was putting a crew together, finding the right producers and getting through post-production. It was filmed during Covid-19 lockdowns, so while some things worked out great for us, like getting isolated locations, some aspects became harder – like working on sound design, background score, and VFX on video calls. From start to finish, it took me a little over one and half years to make this film.
3. How would you describe your film in two words?
Cosmic middle-finger
4. What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?
It was a lockdown film. Right from the get-go, we knew we had set ourselves up for something very ambitious. Covid in India was as bad as anywhere else, if not worse, so we were fortunate to have finished this film and come out of it fine. If not for the lockdowns, I would have liked to have wrapped up a lot sooner than I did.
5. What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking about your film in the feedback video?
It was very heart-warming to hear these reactions. I was relieved to know that there are so many viewers who understood and experienced the film exactly the way I had intended it. It was a huge validation that I wasn’t completely insane for having picked a complex theme, attempting a mix of genres or for keeping it open-ended!
Watch the Audience Feedback Videos:
6. When did you realize that you wanted to make films?
I was a quiet child surrounded by books for as long as I can remember. I read and wrote a lot. Unwittingly, I was already analysing and studying storytelling as an art form long before I took up English Literature as a major in college. I was pretty sure I wanted to be a writer. I moved to Mumbai for a career in films and landed a job as a script supervisor. I hadn’t been to a film school and was grossly underprepared for the extremely technical nature of the job, the stress, the precision, and the insane levels of multitasking. But it also got me studying filmmaking in a way that seemed very similar to Literature. I fell in love with it and realised that while I still wanted to tell stories, I now wanted to do it in a different medium.
7. What film have you seen the most in your life?
Difficult to name just one film, writer or director. I love Charlie Kaufman’s work.
8. What other elements of the festival experience can we and other festivals implement to satisfy you and help you further your filmmaking career?
I think Fantasy/Scifi Film and Screenplay Festival is great as it is! I am so glad and honoured to be a part of it. Independent filmmakers need all the encouragement and help and more film festivals need to take the cue from you guys!
9. You submitted to the festival via FilmFreeway. How has your experiences been working on the festival platform site?
Filmfreeway is a great platform and frankly the only one I have submitted to festivals through. It can get tricky to find the right festivals to submit to, especially when you’ve made a film that straddles multiple genres but Filmfreeway has been a godsend for discovering amazing festivals from around the world.
10. What is your favorite meal?
Do desserts count as a meal, or is it just me?
11. What is next for you? A new film?
Yes, I am in the process of developing a few concepts. Some on my own and a few with my amazing writing partner.
Matthew Toffolo's Summary 