Kathmandu, March 22 -- Apil Bista cut his teeth directing 2016's Jhumkee, a slow-burning drama set mostly in a Tharu village in the Tarai during the late period of the Maoist insurgency. Most of the characters in the film are the oppressed, all quietly getting on with their lives, resigned to their circumstances. They speak their own dialect, and they look unremarkable-they act naturally.

The film was written by Ram Babu Gurung, who is known for bringing to the screen stories from the country's rural belt with films such as the Kabaddi series and Taandro. Jhumkee received positive critical response when it was released, with reviewers calling it a film "that keeps the audience on a cliff-hanger" and one that "makes an unassuming politica...