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WHITE ANT
​​​​​by Shalini Adnani

15min | UK/India | 2023

A man is summoned from Mumbai to his village to deal with a termite infestation threatening to destroy his childhood home.

Year of production 2023
Length 15'
Country UK/India
Shooting Format 16mm
Aspect Ratio 1.66:1
Dialogue Hindi, English
​
Director Shalini Adnani
Production Makadam Films, Stone Bench Films, Sol Pictures 
Producers Sara Bonakdar, Michael Graf, Kaarthekeyen Santhanam, Mrunalini Havaldar
Executive Producers David Kimbangi, Ben Coren (Film4), M Ashok Narayanan (Stone Bench)
Co-Producers Carl Grinter, Kalraman, S Somasegar, Kalyan Subramanian
Screenwriter Shalini Adnani
Cinematographer Adric Watson
Editor Anna Meller
Production Designer Binay Sarkar
Music by Hollie Buhagiar
Sound Design Maiken Hansen
Computer Animation & Compositing Brian King
Costume Designer Preeti Aparna Venkatesh
First Assistant Director Shrilekha Dilipsingh Gaherwar
​Cast Denzil Smith, Sushannt Sapare, Harish Kesariya

Website
Shalini Adnani

Festival selections
Sundance Film Festival 2023, USA - World Premiere
​
Glasgow Short Film Festival 2023, UK
​

Director's Statement
White Ant follows a man as he returns to his ancestral home and the discomfort that follows.
Written in a dreamlike state, in between sleepless nights, the film is as much a dream as it is a reality. Making this film, in many ways, was my way of trying to make sense of my dreams and confront the discomfort I feel when returning to my family of origin.
The film was shot entirely on 16mm. The ants were always conceived of being iridescent and otherworldly therefore working with computer animation was developed early in the process as was the process of combining the animation with the grain of 16mm. Shot over four days in the outskirts of Mumbai, it was integral to the process to work with people from the region as well as local, first time actors.
We looked to Marathi theater actors to find the termite inspector, Sushannt, as well as the character of Bunty.
Making this film was very much a step towards making my feature film Kollam, which will also deal with issues of returning to our family of origin and a country at odds with modernization.
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