Varun Trikha. A cinematographer from India.
Varun is a filmmaker from India, who will use his three-month residency to work on a film project he began last year in Setomaa. During a fellowship by the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Varun became interested in the Seto culture and some personal stories which he encountered in Setomaa deeply resonated with some stories he was engaging with in India.
After speaking to several seto natives and listening to some intriguing tales of memories, Varun decided to turn his interest into a film which will depict deeply personal, emotional and sometimes tragic narratives in a way that has a strong ethical outlook. The aspiration of handling ethical issues in an aesthetic manner is a recurrent theme in Varun’s cinematographic works and is a result of his academic training as an ethicist.
Varun will remain in Estonia until mid-March, both travelling to Setomaa for filming as well as working with the archives in Tartu. Varun will be very happy to make some local connections in the fields of film and anthropology, who would like to collaborate with him in trying to gain a better understanding about the seto culture.