Virginia Film Festival

This first feature film from Indian director Prateek Vats follows the absurd, and at times outright farcical journey of Anjani, a young immigrant who lands a job chasing rampaging monkeys away from Government offices in New Delhi. Prevented from harming the merciless marauders due to their sacred status in Hindu culture, Anjani and his colleagues are reduced to mimicking the sounds of the animals’ natural enemies, the highly aggressive langurs, including the three sounds that make up the film’s title. Limited both by his disillusionment with the job and by his great fear of his foes, Anjani struggles mightily, allowing Vats to shine a powerful satirical spotlight on the realities and contradictions of contemporary life in modern India and of Delhi’s toxic power dynamics that continually capitalize on the dehumanized labor of its citizens. Eeb Allay Ooo! premiered at the international competition of the 3rd Pingyoo International Film Festival in China and won the Golden Gateway Award (Best Indian Film) and a young Critic’s Award at MAMI 2019 in Mumbai. The film had its European premiere earlier this year at the Panorama section of Berlinale 2020. Introduction by Madira Banerjee (UVA).

Eeb Allay Ooo! Is part of the Middle Eastern & South Asian Film Series supported by UVA Arts Council: Enriching the Arts on Grounds, the Institute of the Humanities and Global Culture, and UVA Department of Middle Eastern & South Asian Languages & Cultures