Director Aneek Chaudhuri’s film Ashva: A White Horse’s Neigh blends elements of Norse mythology with an exploration of human emotions. Starring Tamalynne Grant, Ranjan Giri, Usha Banerjee, Rahuul Gupta, Shalini, Rashmi Kumari, Bristy Guhathakurta, Srija Bhaduri and Sana Mukherjee, the film ventures into the realm of time travel, seeking an elusive horse from an era yet to come. Now, the French trailer for Ashva: A White Horse’s Neigh will be unveiled at the India Pavilion of the 78th Festival de Cannes on May 19. Co-produced by Shruti Daga Lunawat, Ashva is an arthouse feature-length film.
The India Pavilion at Cannes stands as a vibrant cultural embassy on the Croisette, its facade a daily gathering point for filmmakers, press, and buyers seeking the latest in Indian cinema. Last year, Chaudhuri’s psychological drama The Zebras had its teaser unveiled there, drawing attention for its exploration of AI and human identity. This year, the Pavilion will once again host Chaudhuri’s work with the world trailer launch of Ashva: A White Horse’s Neigh.
The trailer opens in a dark room where a father is dancing erratically, beating out the blues of liberty inside a room, followed by near-silence on a windswept field at dawn, where a solitary tree stands — its branches splayed like silent witnesses. Without warning, the frame fractures into dream-like memory fragments: slow-motion hoofbeats echo against shards of cracked glass. All of a sudden, one is travelling through a red room and a cold forest, where a lady is embracing a bucket full of wet bones. A girl caresses the harmonium as if she is fixing the head of a headless body. The imagery accelerates into an avant-garde montage.
“Ashva originates in my imagination as an intellectual fascination with the Norse legend of the eight horses of time. These mythic steeds — each embodying aspects of past, present, and future — serve as a powerful metaphor for memory, loss, and the human yearning for transcendence. Yet I am equally compelled by the textures of Calcutta — its rhythms, its festivals, its ceaseless dance of sacred and secular life. My ambition is to create a dialogue between these disparate worlds: to allow a prophecy born in the fjords of Norse saga to resound in the mangrove forests of the Sundarbans, the snow-clad forests of Austria, and somewhere in between,” said Chaudhuri.
He recounts the logistical odyssey of the production. “Coordinating a live stallion’s dawn chorus in the film demands extraordinary collaboration with local trainers and sound technicians,” he said. “Yet each challenge affirms our conviction that authenticity is the greatest luxury in cinematic storytelling.”
Tamalynne Grant plays Lydia, a woman torn between vulnerability and fierce resolve when visions of the lost white horse invade her dreams. Usha Banerjee brings quiet strength to her character, a matriarch whose sorrow and courage emerge in mist-veiled Calcutta. Rahuul Gupta grounds the story as a misogynist clerk whose scepticism gives way to wonder about his marital mysteries. Shombhu Midya plays the character of the father, who is related to the lone tree in an isolated landscape.
In conclusion, the trailer launch of Ashva: A White Horse’s Neigh at the India Pavilion promises to stir both hearts and industry alike. Expectations run high for co-production deals in Scandinavia, pan-Asian distribution agreements, and a competitive bidding war among OTT platforms. With its striking visuals, evocative score, and a cast that brings humanity to an epic legend, Ashva is poised to gallop beyond Cannes.
