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April 12, 2025 at 10:45:00 PM

AFS Cinema

Photo courtesy: Film Heritage Foundation

Indie Meme Special 10th Year
Retrospective Showcase

Pooja, Sir

Nepal, USA, Norway | Narrative Feature

2024 | 108 mins | Nepali

Live Q&A with director Deepak Rauniyar and lead actress Asha Magrati

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Limited tickets available on site.

When two boys are kidnapped in a border town in Nepal, Detective Inspector Pooja is sent from Kathmandu to solve the case, forcing her to leave her wife and her ailing father behind. But when she arrives to investigate, the brewing political unrest and violent protests throw her off course, and she is forced to seek help from Mamata, a local Madhesi policewoman. By putting aside systemic racial and homophobic discrimination and pushing through everyday misogyny, the women solve the

case—but at what personal cost? Inspired by real events which took place in Southern Nepal during the 2015 race protests.

Film Heritage Foundation used the best surviving elements for the restoration – the original camera negative and the 35 mm print preserved at the NFDC – NFAI. Unfortunately, the sound negative was not available. We digitized the sound from the 35 mm print preserved at Film Heritage Foundation. The film elements were repaired by the Film Heritage Foundation conservators and the scanning was done in Prasad Lab in Chennai We found that due to the deterioration of the print, there were vertical green lines on many parts of the film. While the scanning and digital clean-up was done at Prasad under the supervision of L’Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna, the grading, sound restoration and mastering was done at the lab in Bologna. Both Shyam Benegal and Govind Nihalani, the cinematographer of the film, have been involved in the restoration of the film.

Restoration Process

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Photo courtesy: Film Heritage Foundation

The screening will be preceded by a performance by Specific Thing.

Specific Thing is the project of local musician Román. Sometimes he plays by himself and sometimes he plays with his snazzy band — he loves to do both! And the music? It draws from folk, punk, pop, latin, communism, animals, friends... He likes to keep it cartoony, quick, and catchy. The band released an album in 2025 called "Now Is Actually Not A Good Time". Find more at @specificthing on Instagram.

Meet Specific Thing

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About the Artist

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Photo courtesy: 

Film Heritage Foundation

Deepak Rauniyar’s first feature film, “Highway” (2012), was the first film from Nepal to screen at a major global film festival, premiering at Berlinale and later playing at Locarno. His second feature, “White Sun” (2016), debuted at the Venice Orizzonti competition with rave reviews, with the Hollywood Reporter calling it “impressively accomplished” and The New York Times, which included Rauniyar among the “9 New Directors to Watch” list, writing that “White Sun” “captures a place that isn’t seen much in movies.” The film screened internationally at over 100 film festivals, including Toronto, Locarno, Rotterdam, New Directors/New Films, Sydney, and Golden Horse. It won the Interfilm Award at Venice and Best Film at the Singapore and Palm Springs Film Festivals. Nepal nominated “White Sun” for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards.

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Photo courtesy: Film Heritage Foundation

Trailer

Credits

Crew:

Director:   

Deepak Rauniyar

Writer:

Deepak Rauniyar

David Barker 

Asha Magrati

Producers:

Deepak Rauniyar Asha Magrati AADI FILMS (Nepal/ US) 

Rambabu Gurung BAASURI FILMS (Nepal) 

Alan R Milligan TANNAUSER GATE (Norway)

Film Editor:

J. Him Lee 

Alex Gurvits

Featured Cast:

     ​       

Asha Magrati 

Nikita Chandak 

Dayahang Rai 

Bijay Baral 

Aarti Mandal 

Reecha Sharma 

Ghanshyam Mishra 

Parmeshwor Kumar Jha 

Gaumaya Gurung 

Pashupati Rai 

Niraj Shrestha

Restoration Effort Led By: Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, Director, Film Heritage Foundation

 

Restoration Credit:

Restored by Film Heritage Foundation in association with Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd.(Amul), the cinematographer Govind Nihalani and the director Shyam Benegal. Funding supported by Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd.(Amul)

Thank you to our community partners for this screening!

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