Bagri Foundation London Indian Film Festival: Ottaal (The Trap)

UK Premiere

Master Director Jayaraj won the Crystal Bear at this year’s Berlinale with this adaption of Anton Chekhov’s social concern short story Vanka – transposing it into the sumptuous wetlands of the Southern Indian state of Kerala.

Kuttappayi has lost both his parents but has been raised by his loving grandfather. Together they tend flocks of ducks in vast flooded fields and tell each other whimsical stories. Kuttappayi’s life seems good and easy and he dreams of going to school, but suddenly the old man falls ill and very soon the boy’s future is put into doubt. The hard realities of poverty, shared by so many millions of children around the world, soon mean that Kuttappayi must face a hard new future to survive.

Ottaal (The Trap), dir. Jayaraj Rajasekharan Nair. India 2015, 81 mins. Malayalam with English subtitles.