{"id":563574,"date":"2026-07-28T13:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T13:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/563574\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T13:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T13:42:08","slug":"deepak-rauniyars-locarno-bound-private-property-boards-parallax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/563574\/","title":{"rendered":"Deepak Rauniyar’s Locarno-Bound ‘Private Property’ Boards Parallax"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tParallax Films<\/a> has boarded international sales on \u201cPrivate Property<\/a>,\u201d the new short from Deepak Rauniyar<\/a> and Asha Magrati, ahead of its world premiere at the 79th Locarno Film Festival<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film screens in Pardi di Domani\u2019s Concorso Corti d\u2019Autore, competing for the Pardino d\u2019Oro for Best Auteur Short Film.<\/p>\n

\n\tA clip has been unveiled.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPrivate Property\u201d is also one of six films nominated for the festival\u2019s Pardo for Change Award. Shot in English and Nepali, the U.S.-Nepal-France-Australia co-production is set at a gas station, where Maya, a Nepali immigrant working overnight shifts, clashes with Danny, an unhoused Black veteran, over a single space \u2013 a confrontation that pushes Maya first toward the law, then toward a gun.<\/p>\n

\n\tRauniyar wrote the screenplay with Magrati, who also produced the film and stars as Maya. \u201cI\u2019m very happy about Parallax coming on board,\u201d Rauniyar said. \u201cThey have such a record and such taste \u2013 they\u2019ve distributed so many of my favorite films of recent years \u2013 and I\u2019m excited about this collaboration.\u201d He added that the two sides are already discussing plans and will meet in Locarno to finalize them.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c\u2018Private Property\u2019 is a tightly crafted social thriller that examines contemporary America in a way we rarely see \u2013 it refuses the narrative about immigrants audiences have come to expect,\u201d said Cao Liuying, Parallax Films\u2019 co-founder and head of international sales. Liuying added that the film closes on an image nodding to \u201cTaxi Driver,\u201d leaving audiences with a question rather than an answer, and said Parallax is planning a major festival campaign, with theatrical and streaming partnerships also under discussion.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film marks Rauniyar\u2019s first work in Locarno\u2019s official selection, though his ties to the festival go back further. He and Magrati presented their first two features, \u201cHighway\u201d and \u201cWhite Sun,\u201d through Locarno\u2019s Open Doors program, and Rauniyar served on a festival jury in 2018. \u201cIt\u2019s an honor and a privilege,\u201d he said of the official selection berth. \u201cI hope the film screens at its home, in the United States, soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor Magrati, who also serves as a producer and lead actor on the film, playing Maya required stepping outside her own experience. \u201cEmbodying her wasn\u2019t natural \u2013 she is so different from me \u2013 but that was the very reason to make this film,\u201d Magrati said. \u201cAfter all, if we are not curious about what we don\u2019t know, why make a film? Why play a character?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film\u2019s cast also includes Nick Sencey, Hem Thapa, Nicole McCarty, Joe McAlear and Tylar McCarty. Kiersten Houser, Kim Carr and Sheldon Chau produced alongside Magrati, with Avantika Singh Desbouvries, Rajendra Thakurathi and Sakib Iftekhar serving as co-producers, and David Barker and Shruti Ganguly as executive producers. Chau also served as director of photography; J. Him Lee edited, with music by Vivek Maddala. Aadi Films produced in the U.S., alongside co-producer Salt for Sugar Films of France, with Screenxcope of Australia and Dog-Eared Pictures of the U.S. also attached.<\/p>\n

\n\tRauniyar, a Nepali writer-director based in the U.S., has had his work screened at Venice, Berlin, Toronto, Locarno, Busan and Sydney. His debut feature, \u201cHighway,\u201d broke ground in 2012 as the first Nepali production to land at a top-tier festival; it bowed at the Berlinale, traveled on to Locarno, and later ran for a week at MoMA in New York. Follow-up \u201cWhite Sun\u201d took the Interfilm prize at Venice in 2016 and top honors at both the Singapore and Palm Springs festivals, going on to represent Nepal in the Oscar race for best international feature. His 2024 feature \u201cPooja, Sir\u201d bowed at Venice and has continued touring festivals internationally since.<\/p>\n

\n\tRauniyar\u2019s entire feature output has come through a partnership with Louverture Films, the New York-based banner Danny Glover co-founded with Oscar-nominated producer Joslyn Barnes; Anurag Kashyap has been among the films\u2019 executive producers. Beyond directing, Rauniyar teaches at Boston University and has sat on competition juries at both Locarno and Sydney.<\/p>\n

\n\tHis next project, \u201cThe Taste of Salt,\u201d follows the rise of \u201cMasterChef\u201d contestant Santosh Shah through an English-language drama exploring migration and belonging as a young cook comes of age. The film bowed as a work in progress at this year\u2019s Berlinale Co-Production Market and is being made jointly by Sam Taylor\u2019s U.K. banner Film and Music Entertainment and Rauniyar\u2019s own Aadi Films.<\/p>\n

\n\tWatch the clip here:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Parallax Films has boarded international sales on \u201cPrivate Property,\u201d the new short from Deepak Rauniyar and Asha Magrati,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[255316,146,85,46,228210,227370,238228],"class_list":["post-563574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-deepak-rauniyar","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-locarno-film-festival","tag-parallax-films","tag-private-property"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}