On the eve of the 46th edition of New Directors/New Films festival, which started in New York on Wednesday, the New York Times has released a list titled The 9 Directors You Need to Watch, which includes Nepali filmmaker Deepak Rauniyar. Rauniyar’s latest release, White Sun, before premiering at Kimff 2016, had already made a splash across international film festival circuits, winning accolades at Venice, Singapore and Toronto, among others. 

The Times’ movie critic, Manohla Dargis, citing White Sun, writes: “Set in the wake of the Nepal civil war, White Sun turns on a series of fraught, at times violent oppositions that emerge after the death of a village paterfamilias... At center is the increasingly angry confrontation between the dead man’s sons: one, a former Maoist soldier who returns home for the funeral; the other, a political opposite who stayed behind... Even as the director, Deepak Rauniyar, turns opposition into a structuring principle, he creates a satisfyingly holistic work.”

The film was released in Nepal last December to critical acclaim and box-office success. Set in the post-war Nepal, White Sun explores the conflict of opinions between two brothers (one ex-Maoist guerilla; the other, an ex-army); and, in doing so, it examines the ethos of a post-war society caught at odds between two opposing forces—tradition and progress. 

Speaking to the Post about the film, director Rauniyar has said, “One thing I did not want to do is make another sad, hopeless film about a bloody war. I was more interested to explore the aftermath of the war. The film takes place around the time of the announcement of the constitution in late 2015, so the title refers to the white sun on our national flag. The dead body at the beginning of the film is a metaphor for the old constitution and the king’s regime, overthrown after the 10-year civil war.”

White Sun is slated to be screened at New Directors/New Film festival, on March 16 and 17.