EXCLUSIVE: We’re getting an exclusive look at Pan Nalin’s Gujarati-language Last Film Show (Chhello Show), India’s official entry for the Best International Feature Oscar race. Samuel Goldwyn will release the film in the U.S. on December 2. You can see the film’s official poster below. Watch the trailer above.
The film, shot in Saurashtra, Gujarat, western India, where Pan was raised, is a semi-autobiographical drama that pays homage to the cinema of the past — a reminder of childhood innocence and the universal magic of the movies. It follows Samay, a 9-year-old boy living with his family in a remote village in India who discovers films for the first time and is absolutely mesmerized.
Starring Bhavin Rabari, Vikas Bata, Richa Meena, Bhavesh Shrimali, Dipen Raval and Rahul Koli, the story is set against the backdrop of cinemas in India witnessing a massive transition from celluloid to digital. Samay (Rabari) and his pals hitch a ride on the train that passes their remote village and find their way to a rundown movie theater that offers all the entertainment their little hearts desire. When his friends get escorted out after sneaking in without paying, Samay bribes the hungry projectionist with the home-cooked lunch his mother packed for him. And so begins a daily routine: his lunch in exchange for access to the projection booth, where wide-eyed Samay watches the world unfold before him on the big screen. But when the theater transitions from 35mm to digital, this safe haven is disrupted, and Samay enlists his buddies to construct their own DIY projection apparatus.
Last Film Show follows Samuel Goldwyn’s 2021 win in the Best International Film category with Another Round. It world premiered at Tribeca last year and won the Golden Spike at the Valladolid Film Festival in Spain as well as the Audience Award in the World Cinema strand of the Mill Valley Film Festival.