\n\tSet in the future at a time when the world is dominated by machines and hit by a pandemic with its origins in technology, the film follows a scientist, played by Indira Tiwari (Gangubai Kathiawadi), who is forced to quarantine in a remote hotel where a mysterious satellite starts following her and interfering in her thoughts and emotions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tAt the same time dealing with grief due to the loss of her father, the scientist finally escapes and seeks refuge with a mother and her transgender daughter. The three women, who have all been marginalized for different reasons, begin to connect with the spiritual forces of the earth using the power of sound and vibration.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tJayasundara says he started thinking about the film during the pandemic. \u201cI\u2019d been spending time in southern India in an ashram, then Covid came and brought another kind of isolation,\u201d he says. \u201cI wanted to make something that reflects how the whole world could experience something similar but also lose a sense of real connection. We\u2019re all living online but there\u2019s something incomplete in the way we communicate, something is missing.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\t\tVimukthi Jayasundara, credit: Apichatpong Weerasethakul<\/p>\n
\n\tSpying Stars is produced by Vincent Wang\u2019s Paris-based House On Fire and Indian producer Nila Madhab Panda\u2019s Eleenora Images, with Michel Klein, Arfi Lamba and Katharina Suckale on board as co-producers. Diversion is handling international sales. The cast also includes Hidaayath Hazeer, Saumya Liyanage and Samanalee Fonseka.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe France-India-Sri Lanka co-production was filmed in Sri Lanka\u2019s Knuckles Mountain Range, while the mysterious satellite and other effects were also created by animators in Sri Lanka. \u201cWe have a growing CG animation and VFX industry in Sri Lanka,\u201d Jayasundara observes, adding that the country is bouncing back from the financial crisis it experienced at the end of the pandemic. Sri Lanka also appears to be drawing more interest from international filmmakers \u2013 Apichatpong Weerasethakul is currently in the country prepping his new feature.<\/p>\n
\n\tJayasundara is an established voice in international cinema. He won Cannes film festival\u2019s Camera d\u2019Or in 2005 for his debut feature, The Forsaken Land, while his Between Two Worlds (2009) premiered in Venice; Mushrooms (Chatrak, 2011) in Cannes and Dark In The White Light (2015) in Locarno. His films have often dealt in an abstract way with the Civil War that racked Sri Lanka for 26 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tHe has taken a more personal turn with Spying Stars, his first feature film in a decade, although the film also has socio-political elements. After living for several years in Paris, he explains that he decided to take a break from filmmaking and embarked on a spiritual journey, at the same time dealing with the loss of his father.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI was very young when I won the Camera d\u2019Or \u2013 only 27 years old \u2013 and never had anything else in my life except cinema,\u201d Jayasundara says. \u201cWhen the hard times came, I had a lot of emotions that I wanted to deal with just by myself rather than through filmmaking. I realized grief is like an everlasting wound in our hearts; you can meet new people but it\u2019s impossible to replace the people who were part of your past.\u201d Jayasundara\u2019s own personal experience with grief is explored in the film through the scientist who has also lost her father, but in her case is prevented by technology from having a private space to grieve.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tSound is also an important element in the film, encapsulating creation myths about sound and vibration being the source of all matter, ideas which are also present in string theory and quantum mechanics. Jayasundara worked with acclaimed French sound designer Roman Dymny (Yakushima\u2019s Illusion, Green Border) on the film experimenting with human and synthetic sounds at different frequencies. Alokananda Dasgupta (Jubilee, Sacred Games) composed the soundtrack.\u00a0<\/p>\n