Loktak Lairembee

Filmmaker Haobam Paban Kumar makes his drama debut with this delightfully sustained film. LADY OF THE LAKE subtly blends real-life drama with a hint of the supernatural, with Kumar returning to the Loktak lake region of northern India close to the Myanmar border that served him so well in his documentary A FLOATING LIFE. He uses the real-life government decision to relocate villagers and destroy their homes in 2011 as the powerful backdrop to his gently-paced story that focuses on depressed fisherman Tomba, whose life and manner changes when he finds a gun and, to his wife's concern, becomes more confrontational. (Dubai International Film Festival)