Film archive, 2026

Lovers in the Blue Night

Director Anuparna ROY

2Festival entries

★Avg. rating

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.

Stills1

Film details

Director: Anuparna ROY
Country/Region: India, United States
Year: 2026
Length: 105min
Elsewhere: Letterboxd IMDb Wikidata TMDB Douban

Director

Anuparna ROY

Born in Narayanpur, India, in 1994, Anuparna Roy is a filmmaker and writer. Her debut Songs of Forgotten Trees premiered at Venice's Orizzonti, where she won Best Director, becoming the first Indian filmmaker to receive the honor.

From Tokyo International Film Festival 2026, No. 39

Credits

Director: Anuparna ROY
Executive producer: Neeraj CHURI
Producer: Vikas KUMAR, Sharib KHAN, Bibhanshu RAI, Romil MODI
Co-producer: Navin SHETTY
Cast: Neelima SHARMA, Pritam PILANIA, Bhushan SHIMPI, Jatin SARIN
Production company: Khan & Kumar Media

Festival appearances2

Choose a festival entry to see its screenings, articles and audience reviews.

Lovers in the Blue NightTokyo International Film Festival 2026, No. 39Women's Empowerment

Lovers in the Blue NightBusan International Film Festival 2026, No. 31A Window on Asian Cinema

Festival history2

东京国际电影节, 2026Women's Empowerment, Official selection 釜山国际电影节, 2026A Window on Asian Cinema, Official selection

Film posters

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