Lords of Lockdown

  • 120'
  • India
  • 2022

Anxious, out of work and without access to transport during the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, migrant labourers in India’s metropolises decided to walk back home to their villages en masse. As news channels beamed heart-rending silhouettes of millions of men, women and children marching along national highways with their meagre belongings, it became plain that the lockdown had already drafted one of the most traumatic chapters in the nation's modern history.

Mihir Fadnavis’s resourceful documentary trains its attention on this tragic phenomenon that made apparent the invisible labour sustaining Indian cities and households. The film follows the efforts of NGOs and middle-class volunteer groups in providing food and healthcare to workers stranded in slums or adrift on highways. The prevalence of these civic initiatives, enabled by donations but also by social-media amplification, stands in stark contrast to the negligence and short-sightedness of state actors.

Through interviews on the ground, Lords of Lockdown gives voice to the frustrations of helpless workers, who call out the government’s failure in formulating a relief plan for them. The film cogently demonstrates that, far from being a great leveller, the pandemic has only deepened the existing iniquities of our world.

 

Srikanth Srinivasan

Director
Mihir Fadnavis
Premiere
European premiere
Country of production
India
Year
2022
Festival Edition
IFFR 2023
Length
120'
Medium
DCP
Languages
English, Hindi
Producers
Anurag Kashyap, Navin Shetty, Mihir Fadnavis, Samitha Shetty
Production Company
Atraxia Films
Sales
Antifa Films Private Limited
Cinematography
Ajatshatru Singh
Editor
Mihir Fadnavis
Sound Design
Yatrik Dave, Amet Bhandari
Music
Varun Jain, Amet Bhandari
Cast
Ruben Mascarenhas, AK Singh, Dr Aparna Hegde, Rana Ayyub
Director
Mihir Fadnavis
Premiere
European premiere
Country of production
India
Year
2022
Festival Edition
IFFR 2023
Length
120'
Medium
DCP
Languages
English, Hindi
Producers
Anurag Kashyap, Navin Shetty, Mihir Fadnavis, Samitha Shetty
Production Company
Atraxia Films
Sales
Antifa Films Private Limited
Cinematography
Ajatshatru Singh
Editor
Mihir Fadnavis
Sound Design
Yatrik Dave, Amet Bhandari
Music
Varun Jain, Amet Bhandari
Cast
Ruben Mascarenhas, AK Singh, Dr Aparna Hegde, Rana Ayyub

Programme IFFR 2023

Focus: The Shape of Things to Come?

In 2022, India celebrated the 75th anniversary of independence. But is really all well in the ‘world’s largest democracy’? Both documentaries and fictional narratives reflect on the socio-political development of the past 30 years – and ask: Is the institutional success of right-wing Hindu-nationalist groups and the persecution of dissenting voices a sign for the shape of things to come – and not only in India?

Read more about this programme