Exploring bold new works from filmmakers around the world, the 54th New Directors/New Films, our annual festival co-presented with The Museum of Modern Art, officially kicks off on April 2. Ahead of the festival, get to know the filmmakers who speak to the present and anticipate the future of cinema.

Suhel Banerjee discusses what first made him want to become a filmmaker and what screening his film CycleMahesh at ND/NF means to him.

What made you first want to be a director?

I think it was the ability to speak without words and to go beyond language. I was in college when I saw a Pedro Almodóvar retrospective at the Kolkata International Film Festival and was absolutely blown away. I came out dazed, as if I had just fallen in love. I wanted to feel what I felt at that moment, again and again. I guess that feeling guided me towards being a director. I was always a poet and a writer and the medium of film just seemed to me the right fit for my various pursuits and interests, ranging from physics to archaeology to travel.

Was there a film or director you were inspired by or continue to be inspired by?

Pedro Almodóvar, Jean-Luc Godard, Amit Dutta.

In your own words, tell us about your film. What should audiences know?

When the COVID-19 lockdown is announced in India, Mahesh, a 22-year-old plumber, finds himself stranded 2,000 kilometers from home. With all modes of transport shut, he packs his bag and sets off on his rickety bicycle. He crosses forests and mountains, sleeps in temples, and relies on people’s charity for food. Miraculously, seven days later, he reaches home. His story is picked up by a local newspaper, catapulting him to national fame. Politicians visit with promises of a better life, he is promised a job and a house. But nothing materializes and soon he finds himself back at a construction site, back to his plumbing job—completing a cycle of disappointment.

Now, his story has been picked up by a filmmaker. During the shoot in a village outside Mumbai, he befriends Mamta, a local resident. This faraway village begins to feel like home. Mamta’s life mirrors his own, a bond forms between them and these are the best days of his life. But as the film shoot ends, Mahesh grows desperate. Will he lose his newfound friends and sense of home all over again? Is his cinema-dream just another disappointment? One night, he takes off on his cycle. Can he escape one more time? This hybrid, experimental film-within-a-film marries fiction and nonfiction to explore the alienation of a migrant worker in India, drawing the portrait of an endearing young man trapped in a vicious cycle of disappointments. The innovative film is inspired by the works of Indian poets like Namdeo Dhasal and Varavara Rao, filmmakers like Abbas Kiarostami, and authors like Franz Kafka, as it investigates one of India’s most pressing and underreported social phenomena—migration.

What does it mean to you to show your film at New Directors/New Films?

I am honored. To be able to show the film at ND/NF is an exquisite validation for the film. In many ways, the film has been difficult to endure. It has an acrobatic, alienating form. It talks about poverty without dramatizing it. For a while we were lost—who is this film meant for? What does the film achieve? I think ND/NF provides part of that answer.

What was the biggest lesson you learned during the making of your film?

That this seemingly unending, agonizing but ultimately enjoyable process of discovery will have to be endured again.

What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

To not dwell on disappointments or laurels and begin the next film.

What else do you enjoy doing outside of filmmaking?

I like birding, but not just birding—looking at bugs, trees, and flowers. I read quite a bit and have always seen myself as a bit of an amateur archaeologist.

What’s a film you saw recently that you enjoyed?

G Aravindan’s Kummatty.

CycleMahesh

Suhel Banerjee’s CycleMahesh screens on April 9 & April 10. New Directors/New Films takes place April 2-April 13. Explore the lineup and get tickets.