Guwahati, Nov 24: Bhargav Saikia's directorial debut feature Bokshi ('witch' in Nepali), a folk-horror fantasy shot in the deep forests of Sikkim in Northeast India, will have its world premiere at the prestigious International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) 2025. The film has been selected in the Harbour section, which is named after Rotterdam's port city identity and focuses on a wide range of contemporary cinema from across the world. The festival will be held from January 30 to February 9, 2025.

The film starring Mansi Multani (A Suitable Boy, Pari) and Prasanna Bisht (Farrey) is in Hindi, English, Nepali, and an invented language, Boksirit, a fully developed fictional language spoken by a few characters in the film. This invented language, presented as the progenitor of all modern languages, has been exclusively created for Bokshi by renowned Dutch linguist Jan van Steenbergen.

Written by debutant screenwriter Harsh Vaibhav, the film explores the journey of a troubled teen, Anahita, who goes on a high school expedition to a little-known prehistoric site and finds herself tested as a long-forgotten myth unfurls and things turn eerie, forcing her to confront her worst fears.

Bhargav earlier wrote and directed an award-winning fantasy short that was an adaptation of Ruskin Bond's The Black Cat, starring Tom Alter and Shernaz Patel. Excited about making the world premiere at the prestigious IFFR, Bhargav says, "IFFR, which is renowned as a discovery festival and for their edgy programming, is just the ideal place to launch my debut feature. It is an ambitious independent production and an adventurous genre film that took nearly five years to complete. I am grateful to IFFR for giving us this dream premiere!"