FLICKERING LIGHTS

In Tora, a remote village on the India-Myanmar border with minimal infrastructure and few economic opportunities, residents receive a glimmer of hope when they learn that electricity may at last be coming to the region—a promise they have heard before, only to be let down. Over the course of three years, Flickering Lights, from the acclaimed filmmakers of Nocturnes, follows Tora’s residents—including a poor but ambitious mother determined to make a better life for her children, a young lawyer eager to establish himself as a community leader, and a ninety-six-year-old who believes nothing will ever change—as they look with a mix of cautious optimism and uncertainty toward a future that may or may not come.

Winner, Best Cinematography Award, IDFA International Competition 2023
Winner, Mondes en Regards Prize, Festival International Jean Rouch 2024
Winner, Best Documentary, Jaffna International Cinema Festival 2024
Winner, Best Documentary, International Festival of Moving Image, Mexico 2024
Official Selection, Busan International Film Festival 2023
Official Selection, Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival 2023
Official Selection, One World Film Festival, Czech Republic 2024
Official Selection, Taiwan International Documentary Festival 2024
Official Selection, Sydney Film Festival 2024

"This is a sweet, gentle film with some lovely moments, chiefly the community’s choir, which sings beautifully. With some subtlety, the film-makers allow the audience to absorb the political implications of electricity; it binds Nagaland to the Indian state more, and perhaps all this TV soften remaining separatist ambitions." — The Guardian