Film Heritage Foundation brings 4K restoration of Malayalam classic Amma Ariyan to Cannes Film Festival

Amma Ariyan was directed by John Abraham. It was his final film before his untimely death in 1987.

Film Heritage Foundation returns to the Cannes Film Festival with the restored version of the Malayalam classic Amma Ariyan. This is their fifth consecutive selection in the Cannes Classics section. Amma Aariyan is the only Indian entry to be screened in the Cannes Classic segment this year, following its 4K restoration by the Film Heritage Foundation, run by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur.

Amma Ariyan is the only entry from India to be screened in the Cannes Classic segment this year.

Amma Aariyan at Cannes

The official Instagram account of Film Heritage Foundation posted, “As FHF celebrates its 5th consecutive year with a world premiere of our restoration of John Abraham’s film Amma Ariyan at the Festival de Cannes, we turn our focus to the fiercely independent voice of John Abraham—a radical filmmaker known for his politically charged, people-centred cinema that challenged dominant narratives.”

“His final and most celebrated work, Amma Ariyan, (1986) stands as a landmark in Indian cinema for its collective narrative form and political urgency, chronicling a journey of activists grappling with loss, ideology, and resistance. Beyond his films, Abraham was instrumental in founding the Odessa Collective, a grassroots movement that sought to democratize filmmaking by involving ordinary people in funding, production, and exhibition. This initiative embodied his belief that cinema should be accessible, participatory, and socially accountable. John Abraham passed away on May 31, 1987 at the age of 49, shortly after he completed Amma Ariyan,” read an excerpt from the note.

About Amma Aariyan

Amma Ariyan is set against the political turbulence of 1970s Kerala and follows Purushan, who sets out to inform a mother of her son's death, gathering companions along the way in a journey that becomes both personal and political.

The 115-minute-long film was produced by the Odessa Collective, a group of film enthusiasts co-founded by Abraham, who sought to break free from mainstream production and distribution systems.

In a radical experiment, members of the collective travelled from village to village beating drums, performing street plays and screening films to raise funds directly from the public. The film was not intended for conventional theatrical release but for a travelling cinema model that brought it back to the communities that made it possible.

About the restoration

The film will be presented at Cannes by Dungerpur, Joy Mathew (lead actor), Venu ISC (cinematographer) and Bina Paul (editor). "The selection of Film Heritage Foundation's restoration of John Abraham's 'Amma Ariyan' for a world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival is a strong validation of the work we've been doing. This marks our fifth consecutive year at Cannes with a restored film. This year, we've brought back a rare gem of Indian cinema that was in danger of being lost," Dungarpur, director of Film Heritage Foundation, said in a statement.

Gerald Duchaussoy, Head of Cannes Classics called "Amma Aryan" as one of the best films they received this year.

"I was blown away by the intensity which spread throughout the film, the camera movements, the black and white imagery and the political atmosphere. I felt I was watching a 16mm-feature from South America from the 60s or the 70s but set in India in the 80s. That immediately felt right for us at Cannes Classics, a discovery you really want audiences to see. A trip in itself, 'Amma Ariyan' needs to be restored and seen in proper condition. Cannes will be a good start for the future."

The restoration process of the film began in 2023 but there were challenges along the way as the only widely available version was a poor-quality online copy.

After locating surviving members of the Odessa Collective and securing their permission, a global search through the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) yielded just two 35mm prints at the National Film Archive of India-one subtitled and one unsubtitled.

No original camera negative had survived and the prints, accessed in 2024, showed significant deterioration, including scratches, broken splices and emulsion damage. After initial conservation work in India, restoration was carried out at L'Immagine Ritrovata (Bologna) and Digital Film Restore Pvt. Ltd.

The unsubtitled print served as the primary source, with the subtitled version used to fill gaps. The restoration required extensive manual work, particularly in sound, with over 4,000 interventions to address noise, dropouts and inconsistencies. Work-in-progress was closely supervised by Venu and Bina Paul to ensure fidelity to the film's original aesthetic, the foundation said.

(via inputs from PTI)