Ancestral Memory Meets AI in Himalayan Drama ‘Shirjara: Song of Grandmother’ at Tokyo Gap-Financing Market
Nepali director Bikash Subedi’s Himalayan drama *Shirjara: Song of Grandmother* has finished principal photography and is seeking final funding in Tokyo, with a Cannes premiere in 2027 as its aim. The film sets a grandmother’s inherited stories against the rise of artificial intelligence, asking what machine builders might learn from ancestral knowledge preserved beyond books and databases.
Shot at about 4,000 metres in Nepal’s Dhorpatan, the film has an 80-minute rough cut and a total budget of $296,000. Its team says 85% of the budget has been raised and spent, leaving $44,000 for colour grading, finishing, a master DCP and a six-minute AI and visual effects sequence; in Tokyo, it is also seeking Japanese co-producers, post-production partners and international sales and distribution.
In short
- A Nepali Himalayan drama links ancestral stories with artificial intelligence.
- The team is seeking $44,000 to finish the film.
- It hopes to launch at Cannes in 2027.
Explained simply
Nepal is home to many communities whose histories and knowledge are passed down through stories, songs and family traditions as well as written records. Dhorpatan, where this film was shot, is a high-altitude area in western Nepal.
Bikash Subedi is a Nepali film director, and Shirjara: Song of Grandmother is his drama about a grandmother’s inherited stories and the growth of artificial intelligence. The film brings traditional knowledge and modern technology together, raising questions about how knowledge is preserved and what people can learn from it.
Films often seek partners and funding to complete editing, sound, colour and visual effects, then to reach cinemas and audiences abroad. A film market is a place where filmmakers meet potential co-producers, distributors and sales companies; these partnerships can help finance a film and shape where it is shown.
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