FC Hotlist: Under The Waters

FC Hotlist is a series that spotlights films which are looking for buyers and distributors. It is an ongoing project to link indie filmmakers who are looking for a wider audience, to producers looking for fresh stories that stand out in the cinematic landscape. 

With economy and efficiency, Ambiecka Pandit’s 16-minute short film Under The Waters, probes that disorienting stretch of teenage desire, specifically queer male desire — What is this burst of feeling? Why am I feeling it so below my belt? Why do I have no control over it? Why do I want to yank at it? Why does it feel shameful? Should I doubt this instinct? Should I lean into it? Wanting to retreat into what is comfortable while also yearning, deeply, to thrust forward into the kiss, into sex, to choose between self preservation and self annihilation, between pleasure and shame, a certain past and an uncertain future. 

At a sea-side family get-together, the teenaged Sarang (Nishant Bhavsar) and the older Mihir (Shivraj Waichal) strike, dissonantly, at desire. Mihir is teaching Sarang how to swim, how to stay afloat, moving his legs, and Mihir’s hand slips further South, groping, under the waters, at what is initially soft flesh. Sarang’s face registers horror, doubt, and wonder, or some permutation of these feelings. The film traces their bodies, as they walk into and out of each other’s gazes and trails in the midst of a buzzing theater of activities — twister, cards, food, antakshari, dumb charades, football, hidden cigarettes, stolen glances. That something so extraordinary has to be mounted against something so banal. Like unschooled lovers, they exert small acts of brutality and beauty towards each other.

Ambiecka Pandit’s direction brings in empathy that elevates the smallest gestures into larger, more complicated overtures, like staring ahead while trying to entangle your fingers with the guy sitting next to you or lodging a pillow between the legs for comfort. 

For one, we rarely get films about desire without the accompanying moralizing. For another, we rarely get films that absolutely refuse to explain the see-sawing quality of this desire. To yearn for a second. To push away for another. To be angry. To be hurt. To be both.

Under The Waters played at Indian Film Festival Of Los Angeles (IFFLA) and the Dharamshala International Film Festival (DIFF).

You can reach out to the director Ambiecka Pandit at [email protected]