From TikTok to Cannes: How 'Elephants in the Fog' Made Nepal's Historic Un Certain Regard Breakthrough

May 17, 2026 11:29pm PT

From TikTok to Cannes: How ‘Elephants in the Fog’ Made Nepal’s Historic Un Certain Regard Breakthrough

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Naman Ramachandran

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Naman Ramachandran

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Courtesy of UTN, Les Valseurs, DGS

During Nepal’s pandemic lockdowns, Abinash Bikram Shah found himself deep in a TikTok rabbit hole, watching videos posted by Kinnars – members of Nepal’s ancient third-gender community – dancing, joking, performing with unselfconscious joy. The comment sections beneath those videos were frequently vile. The Kinnars kept posting.

“That really struck me,” Shah tells Variety. “I didn’t know what made them keep on going, making these videos, even though people had such hate remarks and bad comments.”

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