Our take
Plenty of folklore warns against greed, but not usually through the uniquely disgusting way Tumbbad embodies it. To the ordinary person, the nearly rotting, ever-hungry crone that no one else would dare to touch, let alone feed, should be something to run away from. We certainly felt that with every raspy warning, all the grime encrusted on her skin, and of course, the multiple threats of cannibalism. Yet, because of the promise of gold, Vinayak Rao can’t resist returning to the manor that’s the source of their family curse. And as we follow his journey, it cleverly mirrors the family’s unrelenting greed with the very same avarice behind the country’s colonization. Tumbbad reinvents familiar folklore into a distinctive supernatural horror gem.
What it won
Venice
1 nom
The story
India, 1918. On the outskirts of Tumbbad, a cursed village where it always rains, Vinayak, along with his mother and his brother, care of a mysterious old woman who keeps the secret of an ancestral treasure that Vinayak gets obsessed with.
Who picked it
Isabella Endrinal is a curator at A Good Movie to Watch. She's now free from the corporate night shift. Previous articles have been published in outlets such as NANG Magazine. She's currently catching up on some classic films… if she isn't coping with the fact that the Haikyu anime will end soon.
