From Nagaland to a path to the Oscars: Indian film brings a rarely seen world to global cinema

Figure caption, Watch: Indian film brings a rarely seen world to global cinema

There is something pleasingly improbable about Angh.

The film comes from Nagaland, a mountainous state of fewer than two million people on India's northeastern frontier, and is in Konyak, a tribal language unfamiliar to most Indians, never mind audiences abroad. It was director Theja Rio's first feature and most of its cast faced a camera for the first time.

And yet, at the Toronto International Film Festival this month, this quiet film won the Platform Prize, a major juried award.

The award is intended to recognise films with a particularly distinctive directorial voice. The jury praised Rio's "refreshing perspective" and the film's portrait of a world rarely encountered on the international screen.