Interview: Pan Nalin – Last Film Show

It’s not uncommon for seasoned filmmakers to, at some point, turn their lens towards their own love for cinema. Steven Spielberg recently treated us to The Fablemans and in the same year, Pan Nalin delves into his personal narrative to gift us Last Film Show, a tale about the essence of life in cinema and life through cinema. The heartwarming story unfolds in a rural corner of India, where traditional movie theaters are becoming scarce. It centers on a young boy named Samay (reminiscent of François Truffaut’s The Wild Child), who, despite lacking the means, is determined to create cinema of his own. I had the chance to speak to the filmmaker at the 2022 Red Sea International Film Festival and in our brief chat I got to discuss the importance of realism and film magic, the ideas of the destruction of cinema and finally if he felt an extra responsibility towards the child actor (Bhavin Rabari).