CycleMahesh. 2024. Directed by Suhel Banerjee

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CycleMahesh. 2024. India. Directed by Suhel Banerjee. Courtesy the filmmaker

CycleMahesh. 2024. India. Directed by Suhel Banerjee. North American premiere. In Odia, Marathi, Hindi; English subtitles. 61 min.

Just how far would you go to reach home? When the COVID-19 lockdowns left him stranded on the other side of India, construction worker Mahesh became a national sensation by peddling 1,700 kilometers in seven days. It’s a story good enough for a movie, one that director Suhel Banerjee has broken apart and rendered a trancelike travelogue that combines fiction and nonfiction. CycleMahesh (winner of IDFA’s Best First Feature) guides us through breathtaking terrain—wheat fields, river valleys, and raging fires complemented by gorgeous sunrises and sunsets—on an alternately hyperactive and contemplative journey that, in just 60 minutes, compresses enough formal distinction and compelling ideas for a film three times its length.

This film accompanies New Directors/New Films 2025.

Past events

Thu, Apr 10, 2025, 9:00 p.m.

Followed by a conversation with Suhel Banerjee

Film at Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
Wed, Apr 9, 2025, 6:00 p.m.

Followed by a conversation with Suhel Banerjee

MoMA, Floor T2, Theater 2

The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2

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