Checkmate
In the neighbourhood, chess is a popular pass time with roadside games bringing together men from different strata. Their pawns include morality and religion, causing social and political tensions to erupt when a tournament gets underway. But the men are only the most visible players.
Against this simmering backdrop, a domestic worker with a secret hobby, a young woman in love and a former journalist struggling with married life must make their moves with care. When caste, class, religion and gender come into play, there are boundaries to be negotiated, and the very rules of the game stand challenged.
Director
Ektara Collective is an independent, autonomous, non-funded group of people who seek to combine creative efforts and imagination and collaborate with trained and untrained people to make films that are content wise and aesthetically located in people’s subjective, contextual realities and experiences. Through this process Ektara has made and produced 2 short fiction films earlier (Chanda Ke Joote, 22mins, 2011; Jaadui Machchi, 38mins, 2013). This is our first fiction feature film.
Festivals/Awards
Jio MAMI, Mumbai Film Festival, Mumbai; Dharamshala International Film Festival, Dharamshala; Kazhcha Indie Film Fest, Kerala; Dialogues: Calcutta International LGBT Film and Video Festival, Kolkata; Cinemas of Resistance Azamgarh, Udaipur, Patna; Kolkatta People’s Film Festival; Goteborg Film Festival, Sweden; IAWRT Asian Women’s Film Festival; Chalti Tasveerein, Travelling film festival; The Bangalore Queer Film Festival, Bangalore; Indie Meme Film Festival, Austin, Texas; Hidden Gems Film Festival, Calgary, Canada; Kashmir World Film Festival, Srinagar; Mustard Seed Film Festival, Philadelphia