Elephants in the Fog (2026, Abinash Bikram Shah, Nepal)
I wanted to love this and there’s plenty to like here. First off, I do believe this is made in good faith (unlike Andini’s four seasons). Bikram Shah writes and films Pirati and Aparna with a caring eye representing their life as part of a community on the margins while also capturing their personal desires. The particular rituals of the Kinnars aren't framed as exotic behaviours nor is the director kowtowing to tradition. Ultimately they are presented as pragmatic codes of conduct required for the Kinnars to survive in the margins. Yet the film is bookended by two sequences that give it a chimerical afterglow. Most of all this is anchored by a stoic performance of its magnetic lead who, I should hope, has a long career in front of the camera with enough freedom to express their entire range as an actor.
But, despite being cut from a fine cloth, alas, the seams of this fine suit remain visible. This is an uninspiring linear story with the screenplay checking boxes along the way: establish character, check; establish community, check; demonstrate interiority, check; foreshadowing; inciting incident; the village turns; climax. The end.
The worst sin here is the foreshadowing. Two shots in particular establish the bad guy within the first 30 minutes. Sure, the thesis here is the precarious nature of their existence and the tenuous relationship the Kinnars share with the townsfolk. But scenes such as these telegraph the whole plot and one is simply left waiting for those familiar beats to play out. Doesn’t help that the whole thing is shot (rather beautifully) through a perpetual crepuscular gloom that it neuters any possibility of surprise and thus any serious reckoning.
That subplot between Pirati and the female cop captures the essence of the story: the sad reality that for those on the margins justice isn’t given but earned. Wish the film foregrounded that dance instead.