Parallax Films has acquired international sales rights to "Private Property," an 18-minute short by Nepali writer-director Deepak Rauniyar and collaborator Asha Magrati, ahead of its world premiere at the 79th Locarno Film Festival on 8 August (Variety).

The film screens in the Pardi di Domani's Concorso Corti d'Autore section, competing for the Pardino d'Oro for Best Auteur Short Film. It is also one of six titles nominated for Locarno's Pardo for Change Award. The premiere is set for 14:30 in the Sala venue, with English, French and Italian subtitles, according to the festival's official programme.

Shot in English and Nepali, "Private Property" is set at a gas station where Maya, a Nepali immigrant working overnight shifts, clashes with Danny, an unhoused Black veteran, over a single space. Magrati, who co-wrote the screenplay with Rauniyar, produced the film and stars as Maya. The cast includes Nick Sencey, Hem Thapa, Nicole McCarty, Joe McAlear and Tylar McCarty.

It is a U.S.-Nepal-France-Australia co-production. Aadi Films produced in the United States, with Salt for Sugar Films (France), Screenxcope (Australia) and Dog-Eared Pictures (U.S.) attached as co-producers. Kiersten Houser, Kim Carr and Sheldon Chau produced alongside Magrati. Avantika Singh Desbouvries, Rajendra Thakurathi and Sakib Iftekhar served as co-producers, with David Barker and Shruti Ganguli as executive producers. Behind the camera, Sheldon Chau was director of photography, J. Him Lee edited, and Vivek Maddala composed the music.

Cao Liuying, Parallax Films' co-founder and head of international sales, described the film as "a tightly crafted social thriller" and noted that it closes on an image nodding to Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver." Parallax is planning a major festival campaign for the title, with theatrical and streaming partnerships under discussion — international sales, the business of licensing a film to distributors territory by territory, being the first step toward wider release.

For Rauniyar, a Nepali writer-director based in the United States, "Private Property" marks his first work in Locarno's official selection. His ties to the festival run deep: he and Magrati presented their first two features, "Highway" and "White Sun," through Locarno's Open Doors program, and Rauniyar served on a Locarno jury in 2018. His debut, "Highway" (2012), was the first Nepali production to screen at a top-tier festival, premiering at the Berlinale before playing Locarno and MoMA in New York. "White Sun" won the Interfilm prize at Venice in 2016, took top honours at Singapore and Palm Springs, and represented Nepal in the Oscar race for best international feature. His most recent feature, "Pooja, Sir," bowed at the Venice Film Festival in 2024.

An 18-minute short carrying the weight of four countries and a competition berth at one of Europe's oldest festivals is a striking proposition. Whether festival audiences and jury members respond to its gas-station standoff will become clear when the Pardino d'Oro and Pardo for Change winners are announced in Locarno this August.