| Nimtoh | |
| Director: | Saurav Rai |
| Producer: | Sanjay Gulati Neeraj Panday |
| Starring: | Pravesh Gurung |
| Cinematography: | Appu Prabhakar |
| Editing: | Jishnu Sen |
| Studio: | Crawling Angel Films |
| Runtime: | 85 minutes |
| Country: | India |
| Language: | Nepali |
Nimtoh, released internationally as Invitation, is a 2019 Indian Nepali-language drama film directed by debutante Saurav Rai and stars Pravesh Gurung.[1]
The film was part of the NFDC Film Bazaar Work In Progress Lab, 2018, where it won the Prasad DI and Moviebuff DCP Award. The film also got selected for the Hong Kong Asian Film Financing Forum, Work In Progress Lab, where it won the HAF Goes to Cannes Award.
Nimtoh had its international premiere at the Rotterdam International Film Festival, 2020 in the Bright Future Main Programme Section. It won the Grand Jury Prize for Screenwriting in the India Gold Section at the Jio MAMI International Film Festival, 2019. The film further travelled to NARA International Film Festival, 2020, Japan. Nimtoh was the closing film of the 33rd Images Festival, Toronto, Canada.
Many of Saurav Rai's family members play supporting roles in the film, which was shot in Rai's village near Darjeeling.[2] The film is about a theft that occurs during a wedding.[3]
The film was screened at Kazhcha-Niv Indie Film Fest 2019 and at the Cannes Film Festival 2019.[4] [1] [5] The film was also one of ten films selected to be part of the India Gold competition at the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2019.[6] The Hollywood Reporter wrote that "Like the aesthetic choice to keep events offscreen, one has to wonder how such a heavy veil over the narrative advances the story, when a straightforward account would have deepened our understanding of the characters’ relationships and maybe offered emotional inroads into a tale that tends to be empathetic, yes, but also dry and distanced".[7]