We interviewed Director Maisam Ali, whose debut film, In Retreat, delves into the poignant journey of a man grappling with the complexities of homecoming, weaving a narrative of longing, belonging, and the haunting echoes of lost connections amidst the breathtaking landscape of Ladakh.
Ladakh—name the place and it paints a picture of serene beauty—but for director Maisam Ali, it is home and a place to find his roots. Maisam talks about his debut film, In Retreat, which was shown at ACID (Association for the Diffusion of Independent Cinema) as a parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival.
We caught up with Maisam Ali, a Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) graduate, with his debut feature film here at the festival. In Retreat is a 75-minute-long feature that tells the story of a person who comes back home after a long period of time. He comes to attend the funeral of his elder brother and finds that he doesn’t belong.
“The logline of my film is about a man who returns home after a long period, decides to remain in the shadows of the night. In small places, it happens that if you’re not there for a long time, you sort of disconnect. So, he is not able to cross the threshold of that house. He just wanders around, having some other experiences; he spends the whole night,” says Maisam.
Maisam describes his treatment of the film as a narrative, encountering various events. The theme is based on his idea of home and questioning what a home could be. “Home is a place where you feel at home, but it can also be made up of boundaries and walls. It is personal because it started somewhere in 2016 or 2017 when I was in FTII, thinking about the premise of my diploma film. I remembered an instance from when I was about 12 or 13 years old. I heard that someone had come back from a neighbor’s house, trying to reconnect with the past, recollecting things and people but finding they were not welcome anymore because they had been away too long. Then what happens?”
This thus became the premise of his first feature, exploring the story of a man who heads back to his small mountain community in late autumn or early winter.
“I wanted to show the feeling of disconnect, of the feeling of belonging that one tries to trace when you return home, based more on personal memories,” said Maisam, who has spent years living in various places due to his father being a doctor stationed in Iran during his childhood. He then headed to India for studies and finally returned to his home in Ladakh, which Maisam describes as a joyous experience to shoot in his hometown.
“Space is very important in films, and this film is more like a spatial experience. There is sadness and vulnerability which attracted me. Maybe I thought this is a distant version of myself and my ambiguous relationship with the idea of home,” he added.
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