Flying Tigers
The term Flying Tigers originates from a massive US military logistical operation connecting India and China across Himalayas during World War II. This story resurfaced after 70 years, when mother of the director Madhusree was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and kept saying - Close the Windows / Tiger is Coming.
Madhusree traces the tigers to Upper Assam where her mother was born. She meets You Mi, a Chinese media scholar, at a chanced encounter in Germany and found that Mi’s family was living in Kunming, the other side of the Himalayas, during the war. The American operation turned out to be a shared family legacy between the Chinese scholar and the Indian filmmaker. But the connection could be discovered only in another continent, away from home. You Mi and Madhusree embark on a journey to trace back their lineage in the fragmented and, also often contested world histories. On the way they meet Purav, a writer living in Assam, who is trying to resist homogenisation of hybrid lived-in culture at the border land of India-China.
Three of them spin three distinct narratives around the Flying Tiger operation from their own positions. As the protagonists speculate an event that took place before their life time, their own lives – its compulsions, fragilities and hybridities - seep in.
The film is shot in India, China, Germany and Poland. It is a tapestry of testimonies, travelogues, performances, art installations, archival docs, motion graphics and sonic compositions.