DOKU.ARTS
Zeughauskino Berlin
19.09.–14.10.2012

Nainsukh

The director Amit Dutta, born in 1977, is considered one of the most important experimental Indian filmmakers, whose films are regularly screened at film festivals such as Venice. Dutta’s latest film Nainsukh reconstructs vivid scenes from the life of the north Indian painter Nainsukh (1710–1778) by emulating 42 miniature paintings with amateur actors and a professional miniature painter in the leading role at original settings. In majestic, cinematic images the film explains the motives, work process, landscape and life situation from which the paintings of the artist emerged. An extraordinary, tranquil and elegant film, whose poetic rhythm of images evade a capturing force. Far from fashionable re-enactments and beyond mouldy tableau vivants, the film doesn’t rely on ethnic elements, instead balancing delicately between documental approach and playful plot, while developing its own visual language by interpreting as well as questioning Indian art history and one of its greatest artists.