Karim and Ameena, a married couple from a flood-stricken region of Bengal, eke out a living in Mumbai, working as a rat catcher and in a phone-room attendant at a bar, respectively. After a chance encounter with Sukka, Karim helps him and becomes a thief, while Ameena shares her loneliness with Omran, a Gujarati man she meets at work. The stories of these four characters - a refugee, a woman, a gay man, and a Muslim - navigating their lives in Mumbai as members of the lower classes are poignantly intertwined. Here, ‘Blue Night’ is both the name of the bar and, literally, a night steeped in melancholy. Yet it is also a starting point for another kind of possibility and hope. Anuparna Roy, who won Best Director in the Orizzonti section at the 2025 Venice Film Festival with her dazzling debut feature Songs of Forgotten Trees - the first Indian film to receive the award - returns just one year later to Venice’s Orizzonti with her second feature Lovers in the Blue Night.
Programme note by CHOI Eun
Stills1
Screenings4
Thu, 10/08
12:2014:07
Busan Community Media Center Open Hall
160KE, Korean subtitles + English subtitles or English dialogue
Sat, 10/10
18:4020:52
LOTTE CINEMA Centum City 4
328Guest Q&AKE, Korean subtitles + English subtitles or English dialogue
Mon, 10/12
18:4020:27
LOTTE CINEMA Centum City 7
531KE, Korean subtitles + English subtitles or English dialogue
Tue, 10/13
16:0018:12
Busan Cinema Center Cinematheque
569Guest Q&AKE, Korean subtitles + English subtitles or English dialogue
Anuparna Roy is a director and screenwriter whose work explores human relationships, identity, and social realities through intimate storytelling and a distinctive mise-en-scène. After studying English Literature at Kulti College, she made her feature directorial debut with Songs of Forgotten Trees (2025), which premiered in the Orizzonti section at the Venice International Film Festival, where she became the first Indian to win Best Director. It was nominated for the Sutherland Award at the BFI London Film Festival, selected for the Competition section at the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival, and was selected for the main Competition at the Lisboa Film Festival. Her second feature, Lovers in the Blue Night (2026), was selected for the Orizzonti section at the Venice International Film Festival.
From Busan International Film Festival 2026, No. 31
