John Abraham

Director at DIFF 2026

John Abraham was a radical filmmaker whose politically charged, people-centred cinema challenged dominant narratives in both form and content. Born in Kerala, he studied film direction at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, where he was deeply influenced by Ritwik Ghatak. He made only four films, and his final and most celebrated work, Amma Ariyan (1986), remains a landmark of Indian cinema for its collective narrative form and political urgency. Abraham also founded the Odessa Collective, a grassroots movement that sought to democratise filmmaking through community-funded production and exhibition. He died in 1987, aged 49.