Badnam Basti (INFAMOUS NEIGHBOURHOOD)

A truck driver with criminal energy, a young woman and his assistant form the love triangle that earned Prem Kapoor's directorial debut the reputation of being the first queer film from India. Even more astonishing than the socio-political explosiveness behind the allusions, however, are the formal design, which borrows from the Nouvelle Vague, and the images of everyday life in a small Indian town. Believed lost for decades, the film reappeared in 2019 in a heavily abridged version in the archives of the Berlin Arsenal, which was expanded with additions from the equally incomplete negative. This means that BADNAM BASTI is still not complete – but it is an uncompromising, fascinating view through a panoramic window onto an unknown world.
(Florian Widegger)

With an introduction by Florian Widegger