🎥 🎞️ Screen Southasia September 2026: The Nine Months

This month, we’ll be screening The Nine Months by Merajur Rahman Baruah, which follows a theatre company of actors, musicians, drivers, cooks and support staff as they perform for nine months across nearly 70 locations, exploring the history, aesthetics, and cultural significance of mobile theatre in Assam in the process.

Length: 77 minutes

Synopsis

Situated in north-east India, Assam is home to the unique tradition of mobile theatre and one of the world’s largest travelling repertory movements. Each troupe carries its own stages, lighting, sound equipment, generators, costumes, and even their own temporary auditorium, transforming open fields into theatres seating over 2000 spectators. With two identical stages placed side by side for seamless scene changes, a company of 120–130 actors, musicians, technicians, drivers, cooks and support staff travel across nearly 70 locations, performing for about 210 consecutive nights over a nine-month season.

This documentary explores the history, aesthetics and cultural significance of mobile theatre in Assam while offering an intimate portrait of the nearly 5000 people engaged in more than 35 theatre companies, whose lives revolve around this itinerant world. Constantly on the move, they balance artistic commitment with economic uncertainty, preserving a remarkable theatrical tradition that continues to thrive as a vibrant form of popular culture in Assam.

Director’s bio: Merajur Rahman Baruah is an independent documentary filmmaker. He has a Master’s degree in Sociology and Mass Communication Research from AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia, and has completed a Film Appreciation course from Film & Television Institute of India, (FTII) Pune. He has received the Commonwealth Vision Award 2006 for his film “Beyond the Zero Line” from the Royal Commonwealth Society, United Kingdom. He has received Rajat Kamal for best film on social issues at the 55th National Film Awards for his film “Shifting Prophecy”. His other films have been widely screened at film forums, universities and international film festivals.

This documentary was submitted in response to our open call for documentary filmmakers. Do you know any visual storytellers looking for a platform to showcase their work about Southasia? If so, we want to hear from you! We’re looking for documentaries, new and old, short and feature-length, to showcase in our programme. If you wish to pitch your film to us, please email editorial@himalmag.com. And stay tuned for more on the documentary we’ll be screening this month!