Chaitanya Tamhane's 'Court' headed to Venice Film Festival

Writer-director Chaitanya Tamhane's debut film Court has been selected for the Venice International Film Festival.

The multilingual movie will be screened in the Horizons (Orizonti) section of the festival, which runs from August 27 to September 6.

"Our entire team is extremely happy about the selection at Venice. It's an honour to present the film on such a prestigious platform," the director told PTI.

Tamhane, an English literature graduate, has previously short film Six Strands, which was screened at international film festivals like Roterdam, Clermont-Ferand, Edinburgh, and Slamdance.

In 2012, he was selected for the Berlinale Talent Campus at the Berlin Film Festival.

Court was awarded the Hubert Bals Fund from the Roterdam Lab in Roterdam International Film Festival 2012.

Produced by Vivek Gomber's Zoo Entertainment, the film has largely been shot on real locations with a cast of mainly non-professional actors, the director said.

The story of Court begins with the discovery of a sewerage worker's body inside a manhole in Mumbai.

An ageing folk singer is tried in court on charges of abatement of suicide. He is accused of performing an inflammatory song which might have incited the worker to commit the act.

As the trial unfolds, the personal lives of the lawyers and the judge involved in the case are observed outside the court.