Roundglass Sustain's Short Film to Premiere at International Film Festival
Roundglass Sustain's short film A Spring Against All Odds has been selected for the Film SouthAsia festival in Kathmandu, Nepal. The film, directed by Samreen Farooqui and based on a script by Radhika Raj, is one of 48 films chosen for the festival, which will take place from November 27-29, 2026.
The film captures the three years Radhika Raj spent obsessing over the red silk cotton tree, or semal, outside her window in her Delhi home. It features an eclectic cast, including Radhika, her partner Saptak, house help Swati, and cats Chutney and Chikki, as well as the semal tree itself and the pair of grey hornbills who inhabit it.
According to Radhika, the tree became an antidote to the challenges she faced during this period, including a mismanaged pandemic, a winter thick with pollution, a monsoon of floods, an oppressive summer, a political shift, and a personal loss. 'It was a very difficult time. My life was unravelling in many ways, along with the city. I was struggling emotionally...grieving,' she says.
Samreen Farooqui, the director, believes that the film makes itself, and that it became a microcosm of everything happening in their lives, the natural life of the city, and the city itself. 'It is about the tree, but also about everything,' she says.
Delhi Through a Different Lens
The film offers an unusual exploration of Delhi, a city filled with these trees and one that both Samreen and Radhika hold dear, in very different ways. 'In a way, the tree offered an alternate lens to look at the city, experiencing it through trees, time and seasons. It allowed me a second chance to love Delhi,' says Radhika.
Samreen, who grew up in Delhi and lived there for most of her life, agrees that the film helped her witness the city again and find the city she wanted. 'Radhika would throw all her research at me, and it really struck me that Delhi is also the city of the 17th-century poets, and Delhi became their muse. So the poetry became very pivotal to the film.'
International Premiere
A Spring Against All Odds is not just an intimate narrative of South Asia highlighting the relationship between a tree and a woman, but 'really the story of cities all over South Asia,' says Samreen. The film will be screened in Kathmandu, Nepal, as part of the Film SouthAsia festival, and the team is thrilled that it will have an international premiere.
According to Samreen, the film resonated at so many levels and needed a diverse audience. 'We are really thrilled that it is going to be screened in Kathmandu. We couldn’t have asked for a better premiere.'
