Image: Production still from The Khayal Saga 1988 / Dir: Kumar Shahani / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Kumar Shahani Estate
The Australian Cinémathèque will present ‘Collection Highlight: Kumar Shahani’, a program of restored films by the Indian director, in Cinema A at the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane from 2 to 6 September 2026. Admission is free. The program draws on the four films the Cinémathèque restored between 2003 and 2006 and brought into the Queensland Art Gallery collection: ‘The Khayal Saga’ (1988), ‘Kasba’ (1990), ‘Immanence’ (1991) and ‘The Bamboo Flute’ (2000).
QAGOMA describes Shahani (1940–2024), born in Larkana in Sindh, as one of the most significant filmmakers of the Indian Parallel Cinema movement, developing an epic idiom rather than the movement’s typical neorealist style, with an oeuvre the gallery discusses alongside Pier Paolo Pasolini, Andrei Tarkovsky, Sergei Parajanov and Jacques Rivette.
The program opens on Wednesday 2 September with ‘Bhavantarana (Immanence)’ (1991), 65 minutes, at 6pm, followed by ‘Kasba’ (1990), 115 minutes, at 7.30pm. Both screen from 35mm prints. ‘Kasba’ is Shahani’s adaptation of a Chekhov short story, using visual codes drawn from the tradition of miniature painting as a framing device to address India’s industrialisation and the emancipation of women. ‘Immanence’ explores the life of the classical Indian odissi dancer and guru Kelucharan Mohapatra (1926–2004), whose dance compositions mirror sacred Hindu temple sculptures and are performed internationally.
Screenings continue to Sunday 6 September: ‘The Bamboo Flute’ (84 minutes) at 6pm and ‘The Khayal Saga’ (103 minutes) at 8pm on Friday 4 September; ‘Kasba’ at 12.45pm and ‘The Khayal Saga’ at 3pm on Saturday 5 September; and ‘Immanence’ at 1.30pm and ‘The Bamboo Flute’ at 3pm on Sunday 6 September. All are 35mm prints and free to attend.
The presentation sits within the Australian Cinémathèque’s wider schedule at QAGOMA, which also includes the closing selections from ‘The Films of John Cassavetes’, a curator’s screening of Sam Peckinpah’s ‘Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia’, and the Queensland premiere of Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s ‘All of a Sudden’. Those programs are separate from the Kumar Shahani presentation, which is identified as a collection highlight drawn from the gallery’s holdings.
