– CANNES 2026: Abinash Bikram Shah lights up the Croisette with his spirited feature debut, a thriller tackling a trans Nepalese matriarch searching for her disappeared daughter
l-r: Joel Gurung, Jasmin Bishwokarma, Puspa Thing Lama and Sahab Din Miya in Elephants in the Fog
In a remote Nepalese village, the community parades nightly through the neighbouring forest, chanting and yelling loudly to ward off the often-aggressive wild elephants that roam. Through the darkness, we hear the guttural creaks and groans of the woods, the people illuminated only by flaming torches. In the opening scene of Nepalese director Abinash Bikram Shah‘s debut feature, we are witnesses to the village’s advances against a threat from the outside. But what happens when the threat is also coming from within?
With Elephants in the Fog, which has world-premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard strand, also clinching a Jury Prize (see the news), it’s Bikram Shah’s second time on the Croisette – the first was in 2022 for his short film Lori, which picked up a Jury Special Mention. The filmmaker has made a name for himself as co-writer of Min Bahadur Bham’s The Black Hen and Shambhala, which both went on to become Nepal’s Oscar entries in their respective years. Now, he flexes both his writing and directing muscles in a vibrant debut that’s firmly revolutionary in its commitment to portraying Nepal’s Kinnar community without sacrificing story or artistic craft.
Bikram Shah centres on middle-aged Pirati (Puspa Thing Lama), a Kinnar matriarch regarded as a mother to Apsara (Aliz Ghimire), Joon (Sahab Din Miya) and Chameli (Jasmin Bishwokarma), in the Nepalese village. The Kinnars, trans women who swear a vow of chastity in exchange for powers of blessings and curses, are seemingly respected for their abilities. Yet, at the same time, they face both misogynistic and transphobic violence that lurks beneath the veneration. This is represented aurally by a thrumming score combining naturalistic sounds with sweeping strings, which slowly grows in fervour and fury to a final fever pitch, a credit to sound designers Henrique Chiurciu and Frédéric Alvarez.
Pirati quietly violates her Kinnar vows by having a relationship with her moustachioed instrumental “drum master” (Aashant Sharma) living in a big city nearby, even plotting to leave the village. However, when the rebellious Apsara – who’s more interested in dancing at parties and making TikTok videos in the woods, not unlike other young women – disappears, Pirati puts everything aside and becomes fixated on finding her. With trans Nepalese LGBTQIA+ activist Thing Lama’s moving performance, her fierce determination gives way to a motherly despair that is impossible not to feel viscerally. The director never once loses sight of centring her perspective, making Elephants in the Fog a necessary tale.
Audiences might expect Bikram Shah to echo the thematic subtlety present in the films he’s co-written. Instead, he fully embraces a style that leans heavily into the sociopolitical thriller genre – and to great success, making Elephants in the Fog accessible for a wide swath of more commercial audiences. Working with acclaimed DoP Noé Bach (also at Cannes this year as the cinematographer for A Woman’s Life and Too Many Beasts), Bikram Shah leverages the scenery’s contrasts to beautiful effect. At one moment, the community resorts to putting on pyrotechnics shows to scare the elephants, lighting up the darkened frame with streaks of glowing orange.
The writer-director’s creative moves are big and bold, going all out to depict the reality of the village with kaleidoscopic intensity. Physical pleasures and raw interactions rise to the surface: the Kinnar women throw obscenities at each other, throngs of young men go berserk for Apsara’s dance moves, and one scene even sees Pirati and her partner having passionate sex under colourful lighting. Much like Pirati’s pursuit of truth, Bikram Shah himself also puts the community’s “dirty” laundry on display. No more pretending there is a sanctity to it all, he seems to say. These women deserve better.
Elephants in the Fog is a Nepalese-German-Brazilian-French-Norwegian co-production staged by Underground Talkies Nepal, Les Valseurs and Die Gesellschaft DGS, co-produced by Enquadramento Produções, Bubbles Project, Zischlermann Filmproduktion, Storm Films and Jayantii Creations. Belgium’s Best Friend Forever holds the rights to its world sales.
