Debutant Tamil director R Gowtham tells Meenakshi Shedde, who has been curator/programmer of Indian/South Asian films for TIFF Toronto and the former South Asia delegate at Berlin International Film Festival, how the film ‘Members of the Problematic Family’s journey started with Diamond Rum and chicken liver. In this interview in Berlin, he describes how his film grew from his poem; how he observes life “like a dog in the balcony”; how his script, inspired by Goethe’s book, is ‘sketchy, doubtful and incomplete,’ and how he finally said ‘Action’ and ‘Cut’ only at the end of the shoot.
Tamil indie’s bold new voice R Gowtham’s debut film, which premiered in the Forum sidebar of Berlinale 2026, is an unorthodox, audacious, rare family drama