Parchhaave Massia Rataan De (Shadows of the Moonless Nights)

24 Mins | 2026 | India No restriction

Australian premiere

Rajan works nights in a busy Pune warehouse, taping boxes while dodging his supervisor's sharp whistle. Exhausted, he returns at dawn to sister Anju's small flat, shared with her husband, daughter, and niece. Constant noise, cooking, alarms, kids, keep him awake. After trying alcohol like his coworker to steal sleep, he comes home drunk, sparking family tension. Ashamed, he wanders pre-dawn streets past sleeping guards and the homeless, mirroring his sleeplessness. A bus drifts him to a coastal village, waves echoing his inner turmoil. Back at work, he cuts his hand badly and gets sent home. Dazed, he slumps on a hospital bench, an absurd sanctuary where rest comes not from escape but collapse.

Cast: Prayrak Mehta, Nikita Grover, Himanshu Kohli, Swapnil Sharma, Radhika Singla, Pragya Joshi, Gyan Prakash Tiwari

Director: Mehar Malhotra

Mehar Malhotra is a Mumbai-based filmmaker with familial roots in Ludhiana, Punjab. She studied Film Direction at the Film and Television Institute of India. Her Diploma film "Shadows of the Moonless Nights" was in the official selection for the La Cinef section of Cannes Film Festival 2026. Drawn to cinema that appears simple yet unfolds into deeper emotional and political layers, her work searches for the quiet tectonics beneath everyday life. She treats the screen as a space for humanity; messy, intimate, and tragically mischievous. She tries to observe, question and unfold the human condition which is always spontaneous and believes cinema should breathe with the same unpredictability.

Cannes Film Festival 2026