Capricci Nabs ‘Rapture’ for France

Dominic Sangma’s “Rapture” (“Rimdogittanga”), which was a nominee at the recently concluded Asian Film Awards, has been snapped up for French distribution by Capricci.

The film revolves around a 10-year-old boy who suffers from night blindness and for whom every night is terrifying when his village is gripped by the fear of child kidnappers. The film debuted at Locarno in 2023 and won prizes at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards and the Mumbai Film Festival.

The film is a rare Indiachina co-production. One of the lead producers is China’s Xu Jianshang, who met Sangma at a students’ film festival in 2014 and produced his “Ma’ama,” which won an award at the Shanghai Film Festival. “Rapture” was developed when Xu was attending the Busan Asian Film School in 2019. Xu introduced the project to Sun Li of China’s Joicy Studio, who boarded the project. The film’s India producer, Anu Rangachar, brought in several other producers including Harsh Agarwal of Uncombed Buddha, Aditya Grover and Stephen Zacharias. Eva Gunme R. Marak, a patron for many artists in the region, also boarded the project.

“Rapture” was invited to India’s Film Bazaar, won a grant for script development from the International Film Festival Rotterdam’s Hubert Bals Fund, participated in Boost NL and was selected for La Fabrique Cinema at Cannes. Xu took part in Talents Tokyo and Sangma at Berlinale Talents. Funding also came in from Vision Sud Est and the Doha Film Institute.

Capricci has repped films from directors such as Abel Ferrara, Albert Serra, Hong Sangsoo and Philippe Garrel.