Rima Das’s Bulbul Can Sing will compete for an award at the upcoming Berlin International Film Festival to be held between February 7 and 17. The Village Rockstars director’s third Assamese feature is a coming-o- age drama centered on a teenage girl named Bulbul in a village in Assam.
Bulbul Can Sing was premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, followed by a South Asian premiere at the Busan International Film Festival. The film will compete in the Generation 14 Plus category at the festival in Berlin, which focuses on “epic narratives, fleeting moments, flights of fantasy, bitter realities and coming-of-age stories”, according to the festival’s official website.
“After the film premiered at Toronto, I didn’t think we would get an invitation from Berlin because top festivals like Cannes, Berlin, Toronto, and Venice usually ask for a World Premiere,” Das said in a press statement. “They accept other films only in case of an exception. So it’s a huge achievement.”
Recently, Das’s Village Rockstars fell out of the race for the Foreign Language Film Oscar. The film was India’s official entry in the category, but did not make it to the Academy’s shortlist.