Three prominent new films by celebrated directors are set to release on the same day this week. The films Maaleekaa, Changa Chait and Beyond the Clouds will all hit screens today, November 2.

Maaleekaa is helmed by Nepali film industry stalwart Rekha Thapa, who also stars in a leading role. “Like all of Rekha Films’ previous output, Maaleeka explores a grave social problem,” Thapa said. “Today, incidents of rape and violence against women are rife. Maaleekaa explores this issue taking the widespread practice of child marriage as the primary subject.”

The film features Kamala Oli, a non-actor, in a leading role alongside Thapa. “Since the film is about violence suffered by a girl from rural Nepal, we came to the conclusion that a non-actor would do justice to the role,” Thapa said.

Releasing on the same day is Changa Chet, a comedy directed by Dipendra K Khanal of Pashupati Prasad fame. The film features an ensemble cast with Ayushman Deshraj Shrestha Joshi, Rabindra Jha, Sandip Chhetri, Arpan Thapa, Priyanka Karki, Paramita Rajyalaxmi Rana, and Surakshya Panta, among others.

“At the centre of the film is the story of those who have money and those who don’t, and how the former dodge the latter,” said director Khanal. “The film is a comedy, an out-and-out entertainment flick, but it also touches upon larger themes of unemployment among Nepali youths.”

Likewise, the famed French director Eric Valli’s Beyond the Clouds, a documentary chronicling the fateful

earthquakes of 2015 and the toll it took upon the people of Dolpa, hits screens the same day. Valli is the director of Caravan, also a film about Dolpo, which made it into the final five of the Best Foreign Film category at the 1999 Academy Awards.