Lathe

A jaded therapist, visiting a single mother and her autistic son, is drawn into an experience that shatters his concepts of reality, perception, and identity.

  • Saurav Mohapatra
    Director
    Amelia runs through a meadow, The First Rule, A Good Fight
  • Saurav Mohapatra
    Writer
    Amelia runs through a meadow, The First Rule, A Good Fight
  • Saurav Mohapatra
    Producer
  • Priyanka Paranjape
    Producer
  • Jake Martin
    Key Cast
    "Dr. Charles Kauffman"
    Castle, Criminal Minds, True Blood, The Mentalist, House
  • Soma Mitra
    Key Cast
    "Reema Desai"
    9-1-1: Lone Star, Rebel Moon: Scargiver, Bosch: Legacy
  • Priscilla Lam
    Key Cast
    "Charlie"
  • Jagrav Shah
    Key Cast
    "Arun Desai"
  • Unni Rav
    Cinematography
    Bhangra Baby, The Valley
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Drama
  • Runtime:
    13 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    February 27, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    2,500 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2.39:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Saurav Mohapatra

Saurav Mohapatra is a San Francisco Bay Area based filmmaker and writer best known for his creator owned crime noir graphic novel MUMBAI CONFIDENTIAL and his award winning short films AMELIA RUNS THROUGH A MEADOW, THE FIRST RULE, and A GOOD FIGHT.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

As an Indian-American filmmaker on the autism spectrum and as the father of a neurodivergent child who is also on the spectrum; I’ve long wrestled with how to explain the way someone like me or my son experiences the world. Traditional communication has always felt like a foreign dialect, but storytelling offered me a shared language—one grounded in pattern, emotion, and metaphor.

"Lathe" is a deeply personal short film, shaped by magic realism, and inspired by the cognitive and emotional dissonance of living in a world that doesn’t always register your perception as real. At its core, it is about the angst of neurodivergent persons rooted in their fundamental inability to communicate their perception of reality to those they care about and the reciprocal agony of those caring for such persons - in sensing the gap, but not knowing how to bridge it.

For me, this story is about the quiet ache of being unseen, and the beauty of trying to reach out anyway. We approached the film with minimal dialogue, intimate soundscapes, and expressive visuals that evoke a sensory rather than verbal experience of reality.

I would be honored for our short film to be considered for selections into programs that are looking to build a community of filmmakers whose work reflects the complexity and magic of seeing the world differently, as part of a tapestry that champions bold, human stories - which don’t fit into neat categories.