Abhishek Pathak and Sandeep Francis gear up as ‘Switch Off’ heads to Paris’s L’Étrange Festival: A special moment for us
Abhishek Pathak & Sandeep Francis' Switch Off
Bharatmorning.com – An Indian micro-budget thriller has earned a screening slot at one of Europe's most selective genre showcases. Abhishek Pathak and Sandeep Francis confirmed that their 11-minute short Switch Off will be projected at the 32nd L'Étrange Festival in Paris, taking the stage at the Forum des Images. The filmmakers called the selection a defining milestone for their careers and for the visibility of Indian genre work on the international circuit.
Why L'Étrange Matters
Running each September in Paris, L'Étrange Festival has built its reputation around programming that privileges psychological dread, surreal imagery, body horror, and short-form experiments over mainstream commercial fare. Curators there screen work that rewards close, patient viewing. For a low-budget Indian thriller to clear that curatorial bar signals a level of craft and originality that European programmers have vetted. The 2026 edition runs September 1 through September 12, spanning features, shorts, retrospectives, and industry panels across the city.
The Paris selection follows an earlier international showing at BIFAN, South Korea's Busan International Fantastic Film Festival, where the film drew positive audience and press response. That momentum carried the project into the L'Étrange selection cycle, giving the team two major genre-festival platforms within a compressed timeframe.
What the Film Does
Switch Off unfolds as a nocturnal thriller rooted almost entirely in the streets of Kochi. The narrative begins inside a cramped mobile-phone repair shop, where a lone technician works through the evening. From that confined interior, the character is gradually pushed onto empty city roads; the surrounding world thins until isolation becomes the dominant emotional register. The premise is simple in concept, yet the execution sustains tension across the brief runtime through a distinctly cinematic lens.
"The idea itself is simple, but an interesting cinematic way of presenting it did work well. When I saw it, I felt there was enough happening within those few minutes to keep an audience engaged and take them somewhere emotionally," Pathak explained.
The producer noted that the atmospheric execution was what immediately convinced him to back the project. He described how the approach of keeping the protagonist isolated while the environment empties out produces an experience that is simultaneously claustrophobic and expansive.
Editing Discipline in Eleven Minutes
Francis, who also serves as the film's editor, brings a background shaped by long-form Indian thrillers. He has cut major projects including Drishyam 2 and Shaitaan, both of which demanded sustained pacing across two-hour runtimes. Translating that discipline into an eleven-minute short required compressing narrative function into far fewer beats.
"My primary goal in editing, especially with thrillers, is to keep the audience engaged. As an editor, I'm always thinking about whether every sequence, scene, and shot is helping move the story forward," Francis said. "We get into the central premise right from the opening scene and then keep the film as tight as possible."
That editorial philosophy—front-loading the premise, eliminating dead time, maintaining relentless forward momentum—gives the short a pace the producers believe will translate well to a festival audience accustomed to dense, unpredictable storytelling.
Festival Fulfillment Versus Box-Office Scale
For the producers, the gratification of an international festival run occupies a different emotional register from commercial success. Pathak drew a clear distinction between the two:
"They are very different experiences. A box-office success gives you the excitement of scale, while a festival selection gives you the satisfaction of seeing a story travel in a completely different environment. For us, having Switch Off selected at L'Étrange Festival Paris is a very special moment."
That framing underscores a broader shift in Indian genre filmmaking: a growing cohort of directors and producers is treating short-form work not as a stepping stone to features but as a standalone artistic statement capable of commanding attention on the world's most discerning festival stages.
Frequently Asked Questions
When and where will Switch Off screen at L'Étrange Festival? The film is scheduled for the 2026 edition of L'Étrange Festival (September 1–12, Paris) and will be projected at the Forum des Images. Exact session times are typically released closer to the event.
What genre and runtime does the short fall under? It is an 11-minute nocturnal thriller set in Kochi, India, blending psychological tension with atmospheric horror elements.
Has the film screened internationally before Paris? Yes. Switch Off was previously selected for BIFAN (Busan International Fantastic Film Festival) in South Korea, where it received positive audience and press response.
Who are the key creative roles behind the project? Abhishek Pathak serves as producer-director; Sandeep Francis is director-writer and editor. Francis previously edited features such as Drishyam 2 and Shaitaan.