For filmmaker Anuparna Roy, Venice is beginning to feel like a dream she would rather not wake up from. Her second feature, Lovers in the Blue Night, has returned her to the festival after her debut, Songs of Forgotten Trees (2025), premiered there. This time, the film also won the NETPAC Award. “It’s a dream and I don’t want to wake up,” she says.

The film follows four migrants whose lives intersect in Mumbai, all of them carrying a desire to be seen, heard and, ultimately, to belong somewhere. But the story began much closer to home.