Interview: Abinash Bikram Shah – Elephants in the Fog | 2026 Cannes Film Festival

Making his second splash in Cannes after seeing his short Lori land a Special Mention in 2022, Nepali filmmaker Abinash Bikram Shah looks towards balancing realism with spirituality in a text that is an intersection between politics, faith, gender identity, and communal survival in Elephants in the Fog. A feature debut that is anchored in the Kinnar community, the film exposes the precarity of acceptance and the fragile protections afforded to those living on society’s margins with the morally complex matriarch character of Pirati at its center. Following the film’s premiere, I sat down with Abinash Bikram Shah to discuss his journey in how the Sundance and Oxbelly labs helped in developing the project, his collaboration with cinematographer Noé Bach, and navigating the film’s shift from political drama to spiritual odyssey.