Guwahati: Nagaland filmmaker Theja Rio’s debut movie Angh has won the Platform Prize at the Toronto International Film Festival, bringing a Konyak-language production from the state into the international awards circuit and potentially opening a route to the 2027 Academy Awards.
The film is set in a Konyak village in the 1960s and follows an ageing hereditary chief, Anghba, and his son as their community experiences major changes in religion, customs and social life.
Most of the cast had never acted before, while Rio was making his first feature film. The movie is also in Konyak, a language spoken by one of Nagaland’s major tribal communities and little known outside the region.
At Toronto, the jury gave Angh the Platform Prize for its distinctive filmmaking. The jury described Rio’s approach as refreshing and praised the film for presenting a community rarely seen in international cinema.
The recognition comes with a possible benefit under new Academy rules. Winners of selected prizes at six international film festivals can qualify for consideration in the International Feature Film category without depending exclusively on an official entry from their country.
That provision does not make Angh an Oscar nominee. It means the film can now enter the eligibility process through a route that would otherwise not be available to it.
Rio spoke about the award in Delhi around 72 hours after the Toronto win, following a schedule filled with travel and interviews. He said the competition included several experienced filmmakers and admitted that, unlike his producers, he had not expected his film to win.
Before entering cinema, Rio had wanted to become a rapper. He has cited Black Thought, the lead rapper of US hip-hop group The Roots, among his musical influences and counts Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami among his favourite directors.
For Angh, however, he drew directly from the society and history of Nagaland.
The story is set in Mon district, where the Konyak community is concentrated. The Konyaks are one of Nagaland’s 17 major tribes, and their traditional village chiefs are called Anghs. Some older members of the community still have facial tattoos linked to the region’s history of headhunting.
The film portrays Anghba and his son as members of a generation holding on to an ancestral religion while Christianity gains ground around them. Their relationship changes further when an American missionary, played by Scottish actor Douglas Henshall, arrives in the village and the son becomes interested in the new faith.
Rio developed the idea after travelling to Mon for another project. He became interested in the way different generations appeared to inhabit very different eras while living within the same families and communities.
He recalled the possibility of one family containing a grandfather who had once been a headhunter and a younger descendant who grew up playing rock music. For Rio, this coexistence of different periods became the basis for the film.
The historical setting is significant because Nagaland was still part of Assam before becoming a separate state in December 1963. Christianity had already been spreading among Naga communities for decades, bringing changes not only to religious practices but also to customs, rituals and everyday life.
B Amo Konyak, a scholar of Konyak society, said the transformation resulted in the disappearance of some traditional practices. Others remained only through older people’s memories and objects preserved by families.
He also said cultural traditions continued in altered forms as communities adapted to new religious and social environments.
Rio uses the relationship between Anghba and his son to examine that period of transition. The two remain closely connected even as the changes taking place around them create a widening gap between their experiences.
Film critic Siddhant Adlakha said the movie presents tradition and progress as developments that can exist together rather than as two completely separate forces.
The film’s visual world is built around Nagaland’s hills, forests and village paths. Its trailer shows mist-covered landscapes, people moving through wooded areas and faces illuminated by fire and lamps.
The setting serves as more than scenery. Family, ritual and the surrounding landscape are closely tied to the lives of the characters.
Adlakha also drew attention to Anghlong Konyak, who plays the village chief despite having no previous acting experience. He praised the restrained presentation of the character and the way Rio conveys his anger without making it overt.
The perspective behind the camera was another important part of Rio’s approach.
Konyak communities have frequently been documented by outsiders, including explorers, colonial officials, missionaries and photographers. Their work often focused on subjects such as tattoos, ornaments, weapons and the history of headhunting.
Rio said he was aware of that legacy while making Angh. Rather than presenting the Konyaks through an external viewpoint, he wanted audiences to experience the story through the people at its centre.
Konyak said the community’s history includes experiences involving family, loss, conflict, religion, uncertainty and changes between generations. Those aspects form the human context of the film.
Konyak advisers were involved in developing the dialogue, costumes and production design. Many of the performers were also recruited from the community and had no previous acting experience.
The production treated the forest as part of the characters’ lived environment. Adlakha said Rio gives the natural surroundings a sense of history and belonging instead of using them simply as a backdrop.
Rio worked with cinematographer Adam Pietkiewicz to shoot the film on 16mm stock. They drew from photographs and recorded material featuring Naga communities and missionaries from the 1950s and 1960s.
The visual style was designed to echo the texture and appearance of that archival material while shifting the viewpoint towards the people being portrayed.
Using 16mm also complicated the filming process. The crew could not immediately watch what had been recorded, as happens with digital cameras. The exposed reels were sent to Mumbai for processing at intervals of four or five days, while production continued without the team being able to review the footage.
One night shoot created another problem when a Second World War-era Jeep failed to start after working normally during rehearsals. After several attempts, the crew managed to film only one take of the vehicle entering the shot.
Despite such difficulties, Angh adds to the growing presence of filmmakers from the Northeast within Indian cinema.
Adlakha has cited Assam filmmaker Rima Das and Meghalaya filmmaker Dominic Sangma while discussing the range of regional voices contributing to Indian filmmaking.
Rio said Nagaland’s own film sector is still developing and has yet to acquire the reach of India’s established filmmaking centres.
He hopes the attention received by Angh will also draw interest towards other filmmakers and stories from Nagaland. Rio said many local filmmakers have stories that have not yet reached wider audiences.