Asif Kapadia's The Warrior was rejected as Britain's entry in the best foreign language Oscar category, it has been revealed.
The drama, which is filmed entirely in Hindi, was ruled out, apparently because Hindi "is not indigenous" to the UK. Had the film concerned Britain's Hindi-speaking community, it seems, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences might have looked more favourably upon it, but its fable-like setting counted against it.
Instead, its place among the 54 entrants will be taken by a Welsh-language film, Eldra. It seems unlikely that the UK's submission will now make it through to the five-film shortlist of nominations.
The Warrior was a huge critical success on its UK release in May, and was honoured at last year's London film festival. Its director was born in Hackney, east London, but turned to northern India as the location for his first film. He is now reported to be working on an adaptation of Graham Greene's Brighton Rock, to be shot in English.
Kapadia's disappointment will presumably be heightened by the news that Lukas Moodysson's Lilya 4-ever, shot almost entirely in Russian, has indeed been accepted as Sweden's entry. The Academy reportedly wobbled on the issue before conceding that there were strong dramatic reasons for the linguistic content of the film.
The last time Britain received a foreign language nomination was in 2000 with Solomon and Gaenor, a romantic drama starring Ioan Gruffudd, shot largely in Yiddish and Welsh.
