UN’s ‘code red’ warning, reflects on Nila Madhab Panda’s Kalira Atita(yesterday’s past) now showing Indian Film Festival of Melbourne 2021

National Award-winning director Nila Madhab Panda’s Odia film Yesterday’s Past (Atita Kalira) will be premiered in the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne and has been travelling to various film festivals across the world, aggressively highlighting the perils of climate change.

The director, who has been warning about the dangers of climate change since 2005 says, “the report by the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate (IPCC) on 9 August has pressed the red alert on global climate change and the impact it will have on communities across the world. We have to urgently prioritize climate change. And we need to act now.”

The film was screened at the London Indian Festival in July 2021 and is now part of the official selection at Indian Film Festival of Melbourne August 2021. Kalira Atita will also be screened at Prague international festival in October 2021.

Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) is the largest festival of its kind in Australia, celebrating the best of Indian cinema in all its forms. The festival presents a diverse selection of movies that encapsulates the best of Indian cinema and films from the Indian sub-continent. Due to the lockdown, in-cinema programs including Opening night stands were postponed. The online program is slated to open on 15th August as scheduled.

Talking about the selection at IFFM and the honour the film has been receiving, director Nila madhab Panda says “when I made the film, my wish was always to take the message of the film around the world. A climate crisis is upon us now and climate action is the need. I am trying my best to tell the real incidents through my films and bring people’s attention to such serious matters. It’s a great honour for our team to be an official selection at Indian Film Festival of Melbourne”.