Anup Singh’s The Song of Scorpions, starring Irrfan Khan has been invited by the Locarno Film Festival to celebrate the festival’s 70th Anniversary on the Piazza Grande on Wednesday August 9 2017.

Khan, his co-star Golshifteh Farahani, Anup Singh and producers Saskia Vischer, Shahaf Peled and Michel Merkt will be attending the Swiss Festival to present the film to international and local press, industry and general audiences for its World Première. A new poster of the film has also been released just ahead of its premiere.

The Song of Scorpions

The Song of Scorpions

The Song of Scorpions is a story of twisted love, revenge and the redemptive power of a song. Nooran (Golshifteh Farahani), carefree and defiantly independent, is a tribal woman learning the ancient art of healing from her grandmother, a revered scorpion-singer. When Aadam (Irrfan Khan), a camel trader in the Rajasthan desert, hears her sing, he falls desperately in love. But even before they can get to know each other better, Nooran is poisoned by a brutal treachery that sets her on a perilous journey to avenge herself and find her song.

Michel Merkt will also receive the Locarno Best Independent Producer Award 2017, “Raimondo Rezzonico”. The honour pays tribute not just to outstanding talents of a “man of cinema”, but also to the intelligence of a producer whose work is reshaping his professional profile in an industry where, in Merkt’s own words, “the producer’s task should be to smooth the path for filmmakers, bringing their vision and ideas to the screen, and then to find them an audience.”

The Locarno International Film Festival held annually in Switzerland has occupied a unique position in the landscape of major film festivals. The major characteristic of the annual film gathering is that it attracts top independent film talent from around the world. Winners from the past have included films such as Bend it like Beckham, The Syrian Bride, Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others), Monsieur Lazhar, Lore, Schweizer Helden, Der Staat gegen Fritz Bauer and I, Daniel Blake.

Excited about the news, Irrfan Khan said, “I’m looking forward to be present and witness the World Premiere of the film at an event as iconic as Locarno’s Piazza Grande. To witness such an event where people will come out in thousands in an open air venue to see the film is something I’m looking forward to. I am so excited to watch a film shot in the beautiful location of Jaisalmer in the background of the Alps at Locarno”.

Piazza Grande attracts as many as 8000 people for whom the film screening is an open venue. Locarno’s Piazza Grande title is an award given to films that have artistic and commercial excellence. The Piazza Grande’s events this year include major movies like the critically lauded The Big Sick, Atomic Blonde, Good Time starring Robert Pattinson and Jennifer Jason Leigh.