Shillong, Sep 16: Meghalaya’s most celebrated filmmaker, Pradip Kurbah, has been facing something of a backlash in Western Europe after he took his latest movie, Ka Lyngkha Bneng (The Elysian Field), to Russia for the Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF).
The movie was not just screened there but won MIFF’s Golden Saint George prize. The director travelled to Russia for the festival in April and was back in the country again in July for a separate festival in Yaroslavl where he was accompanied by members of the cast.
Russia has been largely shunned by the West since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Screening the film in Moscow has apparently not gone down well at other film festivals.
In an interview a few days ago with The Economic Times, he was quoted as saying, “I thought the film will travel more because of the win, but it backfired. Due to the geopolitical situation between Russia and Ukraine, festivals in Europe that I won’t name dropped my film after selecting it.”
The ET story lauded the films as “one of the most brilliant” of 2025 and slammed the West for the hypocrisy in punishing Russia while persecuting anyone in the film industry who speaks up for Palestine against Israel.
Western hypocrisy aside, and there is no shortage of that, Kurbah was perhaps a little naive in thinking there would be no repercussions for taking his film to Russia.
“A film from Meghalaya, that has nothing to do with what’s happening in Europe, has suffered. But it’s okay. The film has its own journey. It’s a good learning process for me too,” he said, while telling ET that Ka Lyngkha Bneng will be screened at other festivals, just perhaps not in Western Europe.
