Ekta Mittal

The waves of migration from rural regions of India to the cities gets a lyrical portrait in Ekta Mittal’s exquisitely crafted look at longing and loss.

They set off, looking for work in far-off places, but disappeared along the way. Inspired by Shiv Kumar Batalvi’s “birha” poetry, the film traces the longing on both sides: on the part of those who are missing, and those that wait for them to return.

PRESENCE is the second film produced under the Behind the Tin Sheets project. The film follows ghost stories from faraway as narrated by workers against a changing metropolis. Long days and nights spent within the bellies of the rising structural beasts that rapidly transform the city of Bangalore bring on visions of ghosts that speak of the construction workers’ memories, longings and fears, in this haunting meditation on the migrant experience.

Distance is a short film about a far away village set amidst a growing metropolis where workers narrate stories of love and longing.

The waves of migration from rural regions of India to the cities gets a lyrical portrait in Ekta Mittal’s exquisitely crafted look at longing and loss.

They set off, looking for work in far-off places, but disappeared along the way. Inspired by Shiv Kumar Batalvi’s “birha” poetry, the film traces the longing on both sides: on the part of those who are missing, and those that wait for them to return.

They set off, looking for work in far-off places, but disappeared along the way. Inspired by Shiv Kumar Batalvi’s “birha” poetry, the film traces the longing on both sides: on the part of those who are missing, and those that wait for them to return.

PRESENCE is the second film produced under the Behind the Tin Sheets project. The film follows ghost stories from faraway as narrated by workers against a changing metropolis. Long days and nights spent within the bellies of the rising structural beasts that rapidly transform the city of Bangalore bring on visions of ghosts that speak of the construction workers’ memories, longings and fears, in this haunting meditation on the migrant experience.

Distance is a short film about a far away village set amidst a growing metropolis where workers narrate stories of love and longing.