Manoj Babu Panta

The Remains, Manoj Babu Panta (2018)

Manoj Babu Panta is a Nepalese screenwriter and film director. His second short film The Remains premiered at Melbourne, Tampere, International Festival Signs of the Night/Bangkok, SAARC Sri Lanka, Bengaluru, Izmir, and IFVA - Hong Kong, where it won a Special Mention.

Manoj Babu Panta participated in an exclusive interview with Filmatique as part of Talents 2020.

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FILMATIQUE: The Remains is set within the confines of an old man's recollections, unfolding as a stream-of-consciousness journey through his impressions and memories. When did you first have the idea to make this film?

MANOJ BABU PANTA: The idea of this film first sparked in my mind while I was traveling to my birthplace four years ago. I witnessed the drastic transformation of the place where nothing was near to my memories. I felt that the place and time only remained in my nostalgia. Haunted by this despair, I wanted to make a film where I could recollect and share an atmosphere that was lost. I chose a fictional character and imagined a specific circumstance where I could inject my childhood impressions. I felt that everything is going through a metamorphosis—changing its shape and size, being transformed into something different. The actual texture of that particular thing only remains within our memories.

In the film, the old man is helplessly witnessing his outer and inner transformation. I have lived my early childhood on the isolated bank of the Marsyangdi River. The image, sound and temporal rhythm presented in the film is deeply connected to my soul. Without any dramatic shape, I have presented those times-images into a stream of consciousness manner.

FLMTQ: The cinematography and sound design of the film is quite striking, soothing yet somehow stirring, immersing the spectator in a distinct cinematic landscape. Can you tell us more about your aesthetic approach to this project, and your process of creating the film's particular atmosphere?

MBP: As a student of film-art, I believe there are two kinds of progression in film. The first one puts its all efforts in creating a dramatic progression. Playing with the curiosity of the audience, it progresses through a chain of cause and effect. The second kind is more dedicated to the experience of the here and now. By designing time and space, this kind of film invites audiences into an immersion. I have designed The Remains this way—to invite the audience to immerse themselves rather than offer them a dramatic experience. The long takes and the mist-covered silent images are intended to create a meditative atmosphere. The texture of the image, the sound, and more importantly the temporal rhythm that shapes the image and sound are designed very carefully. I have tried to approximate my subjective impressions.

The Remains, Manoj Babu Panta (2018)

FLMTQ: Besides the human characters, much time is allocated to non-human elements in The Remains—a ceaselessly flowing river, birdsong, the slight graze of the wind. What significance do you ascribe to the ecological elements in your film?

MBP: I have presented the non-human elements not only as the backdrop of the action; they are also important signifiers in creating atmosphere. Through the temporal rhythm of these nonliving elements, I wanted to recreate the atmosphere which was deeply rooted inside me. The narrative convention of cinema, all over the world, is more concerned with human figures and human emotions. Non-human elements are typically used only as a backdrop for human action—some masters, however, have explored the enormous possibilities of non-human elements as a significant elements in cinematic language.

In this short film I am more concerned with immersing the audience in the nature than in human emotions. Though I haven't divided the film into human and non-human elements, this happened automatically while creating it since the film has few human figures and minimal human activities.

FLMTQ: In addition to your own creative endeavors, you are currently on the faculty of film studies at Tribhuwan University. Can you share with our readers any insight you may have about the Nepalese film industry, the process of getting films made, and the creative scene as you see it?

MBP: The history of cinema in Nepal dates back to 1951 when the first ever Nepali feature film titled Satya Harischandra was made, produced in Calcutta, India. Aama was the first film produced in Nepal, in 1964. By the time Nepal produced its first film within its own territory, Indian cinemas had already become popular among Nepalese audiences. Nepalese film borrowed filmmaking formulas and conventions from melodramatic Bollywood films; for fifty years, the Nepalese cinema industry was trying to satisfy audience with a continuous repetition of Bollywood stereotypes.

Over the last few years, significant progress has been made as we are witnessing different narrative styles and genre experiments. Serious, offbeat films are travelling towards international film festivals. The filmmakers from the new generation are pushing themselves forward, rejecting the old, Bollywood inspired cinema conventions. I believe that within the next few years, Nepalese cinema will be shaped with its own fundamental features.

FLMTQ: Are you working on any new projects, and if so, can you tell us a bit about them?

MBP: I am developing my debut feature film, Simi Nasa. This is a narrative of an old shepherd, living a nomadic life in the remote Himalayas. The old man is sick and unable to continue his job in this cold climate, because of his bad health. His son, who is living in the city, proposes that the shepherd move to the city for a better life, but the sick old man is not ready to leave his home in the last days of his life. I am trying to examine profound questions of life and death through the perspective of an innocent, old nomad.

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Interview by Ursula Grisham
Head Curator, Filmatique