Private Project

Our Mountain Valley Home

Hidden among the misty green mountains surrounding Phopsandi—a village in the
Western Ghats of Maharashtra—the Wale family have inhabited a lamplit cave
for the past four generations. This observational documentary portrays the family’s
routine of herding cows, preparing food, working the fields and fetching water
from the river below. Events take a disturbing turn when, one day, government
officials arrive to question the Wales about a house they have been allocated in
Phopsandi. The ensuing conversation reveals the family’s dwindling finances and
their matriarch’s reluctance to leave the ancestral home.
This is an observational documentary about a family’s minor pleasures, travails and tribulations. A simple story of simple people which perhaps reflect larger ideas of living.

As one day government officials arrive to question them about the house they have been provided in the village below, deeper complications to their apparently content life unfolds.

  • Amartya Ray
    Director
  • Film And Television Institute Of India
    Producer
  • Akshay Pradip Ingle
    Camera
  • Nawas Ali
    Edit
  • Sudarshan Sarjerao Sawant
    Sound Recording and Sound Design
  • Film And Television Institute Of India
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    20 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    February 28, 2020
  • Country of Origin:
    India
  • Country of Filming:
    India
  • Language:
    Marathi
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    Yes - Film And Television Institute Of India
  • Dharamshala International Film Festival
    Dharamshala
    India
    Official Selection
  • International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala

    India
    Official Selection in Main competition
Director Biography - Amartya Ray

Amartya Ray is a 26 year old film direction alumni from Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). His directorial works:
- Portraits: 2020 (Fur gold lotus for best fiction PSBT challenge; Official selection at Changing Perspectives International Film Festival) - short fiction
- Our Mountain Valley Home (officially selection at Dharamshala International Film Festival 2020; Official selection in main competition for IDSFFK 2021) - short documentary
- Dhulo (FTII short fiction project)
He is currently co-creating a web drama and writing for his first feature. Alongside this he plans on making an experimental documentary mapping the monsoon during the lockdown.
Amartya is also a singer-songwriter and an actor. He has acted in three feature films, two of which have been released nationally and one still in production. He believes that the inter-disciplinary forms allow him to learn from each other and ultimately help in telling a better story.
Amartya wants to identify the “human” in today’s changing world through his narratives, images, sounds and mis-en-scene.

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Director Statement

This is a film that had been created together as an unit, where roles interchanged and overlapped.
The best takeaway from making this documentary for the entire team has been the friendship formed with the family in the film and the compassion they showed us over the short span we could stay with them.