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 ProductionMakadam Films, Stone Bench Films, Sol Pictures Producers Sara Bonakdar, Michael Graf, Kaarthekeyen Santhanam, Mrunalini Havaldar Executive ProducersDavid 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
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.
