Why are the men in the trailer looking up at the sky? They’re in search of the sun. Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know is based on a Kannada folktale about a woman who steals the village’s prized rooster, plunging her people into perpetual midnight. The villagers embark on a frenetic quest to retrieve the missing bird and restore daylight. Shot entirely at night, the film feels both intriguing and foreboding.
Despite the popularity of the folktale in his home state, Naik discovered that most people outside Karnataka were unfamiliar with it. “My dream has been to transform the myths and folktales of India into cinematic experiences, and with such a wealth of stories waiting to be told, this short film feels like the perfect place to start,” he told The Hindu in an interview. The director’s hope is that the world reference India’s rich repository of myths and legends in conversation as often as we do Greek philosophy.
Being honored at a place like Cannes—and recieving the top prize in the category he was nominated for—is a victory hard-earned for Naik, who revealed to Variety that he was told not to make Sunflowers at all. “We had only four days to shoot,” said the 29-year-old director in the interview, “but these are the stories we grew up with and I had been carrying this idea since my childhood.”
Don’t let the name Bunnyhood fool you into thinking that Mansi Maheshwari’s film is even remotely cute or fluffy; in fact, it leans into the “evil bunny” archetype pretty heavily. The trailer for the animated film, which bagged third place in the La Cinef Selection, feels like a fever dream. It unsettles the viewers right off the bat, beginning with a mother’s announcement to her daughter, “We’re going to Big Patties,” supported by a jarring guitar riff and scratchy illustrations. The burger joint appears onscreen for a split second before the mom’s voiceover is heard again: “It’s just a check-up, trust me.” Then, the scene is taken over by looming malevolent figures and a doctor in scrubs, all of whom transform into bunnies and thrust a needle into the girl.
Maheshwari, who hails from Meerut in Uttar Pradesh and has been studying in the United Kingdom, says that the idea for Bunnyhood came to her from an incident that occurred in her childhood, where her mother lied about an appendix surgery she had to undergo. It was one of the first lies she heard in her life, and the memory of it has lingered through adulthood. “I’ve always struggled with understanding why people feel the need to lie, and its consequences. The story of my appendix surgery was the perfect choice to explore this theme,” she said in an interview with Directors Notes.