A film based on folktales from Assam, India is all set for its European premiere at the London Film Festival this week. The BFI London Film Festival (also known as just the London Film Festival) is the UK’s largest public film event, screening more than 300 features, documentaries and shorts from almost 50 countries.

Kothanodi is an Assamese language feature film written and directed by Bhaskar Hazarika and stars Seema Biswas, Adil Hussain, Zerifa Wahid, Urmila Mahanta, Kopil Bora and Asha Bordoloi. The film is based on characters and events described in Burhi Aair Sadhu (Grandma’s Tales), a popular compendium of folk stories compiled by Assamese literary giant Lakshminath Bezbaroa. The four fables referenced in the film are Tejimola, Champawati, Ou Kuwori (The Outenga Maiden) and Tawoir Xadhu (The Story of Tawoi).

Bhaskar Hazarika, the director said “While these stories have been rendered before in film, radio, and theatre in Assam – ‘Kothanodi‘ is perhaps the first instance where these stories are treated through a more realist lens, and what has come through are colder and darker narratives of what traditionally are known to be children’s stories,”

Kothanodi will be screened at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in central London on Saturday and the British Film Institute (BFI) on the banks of the river Thames on Sunday. Earlier this month, It had its world premiere at Busan International Film Festival.

From the London Film Festival, Kothanodi will travel back for its Indian debut at the Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image Film Festival ( MAMI ), where the film has been selected in the competition category from over 200 entries.