Synopsis
Lantana camara, an invasive shrub and its allies Uppilu (Mistletoe), Bilirojiga (Siam Weed), and Karikaddi (Mexican Devil) scheme to take over the BR Hills in the Western Ghats of India. Will the last remaining wild Bamboo in the region survive? With Bhumi Tayi (Land) as witness, the film explores the history of the landscape that led to its current state. In a world where indigenous knowledge and sensibilities are often sidelined, the film foregrounds the Soliga community’s worldview and wisdom. Bhumi Tayi is confronted by Lantana as the disappearance of the native bamboo in the region is visualized by stop-motion sequences, hand-drawn animations, and use of archival images from the region.
Meera Krishnamurthy
Meera Krishnamurthy is an animation filmmaker from Bangalore, Karnataka, with a focus on mixed-media stop-motion animation. She has directed and animated narrative shorts and non-fiction films. Her films have screened at festivals such as Animafest Zagreb, Animela Mumbai, and Sci560, among others. Her work explores the real and the imagined through the use of found objects, archives, and frame-by-frame drawings. She teaches experimental animation as a visiting faculty member at Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology. In 2023, she was the coordinator in a project implemented by the India Foundation for the Arts with the SL Bhatia History of Medicine Museum, where the outcome of the project, a film, is now part of the museum’s permanent collection.
Filmography
Tell It to the Walls (2017), A Flowering Tree (2018), Change/ce (2021), Anatomy + Humanities: The Animated Life of SL Bhatia (2021), Heralds of the Monsoon (2025), The Last Bamboo (2025).
