Premiering at the Sydney Film Festival is the first film in the Kannada language to be selected in the Berlinale, a film based in the remote mountainous part of Southern India rarely portrayed in cinema.

The film Tiger’s Pond focuses on a local businessman’s pursuit of political power, exploring the complex relationships in a slick thriller that deals with the cultural problems of caste and gender politics.

Stephen Hill talked to the film’s director Natesh Hegbe about this film and about Indian independent and regional cinema.