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
Flatpack Festival 2023, UK
​​Palm Springs International ShortFest 2023, USA
Ouray International Film Festival 2023, USA
​Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival 2023, South Korea
Shorts International Film Festival 2023, Italy
​TIFF ODA - Tetova International Film Festival 2023, Republic of Macedonia
​Indian Film Festival Stuttgart 2023, Germany
Svaneti International Film Festival 2023, Georgia
​​HollyShorts Film Festival 2023, USA
​Anonimul International Independent Film Festival 2023, Romania 
​Festival Silhouette 2023, France - Grand Prix Silhouette
​Calgary International Film Festival 2023, Canada
​Batumi International Art-House Film Festival 2023, Georgia
Encounters Film Festival 2023, UK
Curtocircuíto - Festival Internacional de Cinema 2023, Spain
Bolton International Film Festival 2023, UK
Heart of Gold International Short Film Festival 2023, Australia
​Adelaide Film Festival  2023, Australia
Uppsala Short Film Festival 2023, Sweden
​Filmfest Sundsvall 2023, Sweden
​Contemporanea International Film Festival 2023, Italy
​Raindance Film Festival 2023, UK - Best UK Short Award
Imagine Science Film Festival 2023, USA
Film Front International Short Film Festival 2023, Serbia
Mumbai Film Festival 2023, India
Monsters - Taranto Horror Film Festival 2023, Italy
Lund Fantastic Film Festival 2023, Sweden
London Indian Film Festival 2023, UK
​San Diego Asian Film Festival 2023, USA
Leeds International Film Festival 2023, UK
​Hell de Janeiro Film Festival 2023, Brazil
​Ningbo Short Film Festival 2023, China
Tangier International Film Festival 2023, Morocco
​SCANORAMA Film Festival 2023, Lithuania
​​Mieres Film Festival 2023, Spain
​Jogja-Netpac Asian Film Festival 2023, Indonesia
​
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.