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The Shepherdess and the Seven Songs (or Laila aur Satt Geet) follows the life of Laila, a newly married woman from the Kashmir-located Bakarval tribe (predominantly sheep herders).
A feminist folktale, it explores her attempt to navigate the patriarchal institutions of her marriage and her land in order to fully realise her personhood.
The Shepherdess
and the Seven Songs
IDENTITY DESIGN, ILLUSTRATION
CLIENT + PARTNER
Pushpendra Singh (Director, Writer, Producer)
LINK TO IMDB PAGE
For its Berlin Film Festival 2020 premiere, the film's poster was designed with a minimalist approach drawing on the story's recurring motifs of 'thread' and 'sheep', the latter considered an extension of the body. In doing so, the design depicted an ambiguous relationship between the two, raising the question whether the body confines itself, or unspools in the face of adversary.
The poster was shortlisted for the Berlinale poster competition by festival curator and manager Matthijs Wouter Knol, and further featured in Sight & Sound, as well as in the Round-Up in Best Indian Film Posters of 2020.
DRAFTS + SKETCHES
Early drafts with reference images emphasised the main character's face, and incorporated the motif of thread through visual references to fabric and traditional garb articles.
1/6
The key art concept emerged iteratively through a simple red ink sketch of one half of a sheep's body linked to yarn.
The sketch then influenced the direction of the final poster from its very inception.
1/3
FINAL POSTER
The final poster combined the key artwork of the sheep and the thread, with a type treatment for the film's title in both Roman (English) and Arabic (Gojri) script.
In doing so, the film's title could be read from right to left in both languages.
FESTIVAL SCREENER
ALTERNATE OPTIONS: TYPE TREATMENTS with TITLE LANGUAGES + KEY ART in RED
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