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In the Belly of a Tiger

Forum 2024
A tiger is wreaking havoc in an Indian village. Deaths are becoming more frequent, but tigers are protected. As the farmers are not allowed to hunt them, they demand compensation from the government and receive it. The tiger’s life is now worth more than theirs. An elderly couple, Bhagole and Prabhata, newly returned to the village with their son and two granddaughters, now only own their house and the bull, after having sold their land to try their luck in the city. All they now have to offer is their labour, which makes them prone to blackmail, like everyone else in the village. The film clearly highlights the vicious cycle of exploitation at the local brick factory, but also devotes time to the relationships between the family members, allowing them to develop their ideas of value and reciprocity until these come to a head one desperate night when they have to decide: Can the family escape their fate if one of them “invests” their life? Caught between real events and the magical lotus blossoms from the belly of Lord Vishnu, Siddartha Jatla’s In the Belly of a Tiger is a poignant critique of capitalism.
by Siddartha Jatla
with Lawrence Francis, Poonam Tiwari, Sorabh Jaiswar, Jyoti, Sonali, Pooja Pallavi, Umesh Shukla India / USA / People’s Republic of China / Indonesia / Taiwan 2024 Hindi 91’ Colour World premiere

With

  • Lawrence Francis
  • Poonam Tiwari
  • Sorabh Jaiswar
  • Jyoti
  • Sonali
  • Pooja Pallavi
  • Umesh Shukla

Crew

Director Siddartha Jatla
Screenplay Amanda Mooney, Siddartha Jatla
Cinematography Siddartha Jatla
Editing Akhmad Fesdi Anggorro
Music Shigeru Umebayashi
Sound Design Resool Pookutty
Sound Resool Pookutty
Producers Sarada Uma, Fang Li, Bhavana Goparaju
Co-Producers Nishtha Satyam, Heliang Ma, Axel Hadiningrat, Giovaanni Rahmadeva, Ye Sun, Patrick Mao Huang
Co-Production Qun Films Jakarta
Flash Forward Entertainment Taipeh
Myth Image Beijing

World sales

Flash Forward Entertainment

https://www.ffe.com.tw/ https://www.ffe.com.tw/

Produced by

Bhairavi Films

Wonder Pictures

Jeevi Films

https://jeevifilms.com https://jeevifilms.com

Photos

Siddartha Jatla

Cinematography graduate of the Film and Television Institute of India, and son of director Jatla Venkataswami Naidu. His debut film, Love and Shukla, inspired by the invisible struggle for privacy amongst India’s urban lower middle class, premiered at Busan International Film Festival, and was shown in over 40 other festivals around the world.

Filmography

2017 Love and Shukla 2024 In the Belly of a Tiger

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2024