Documentary / Essay FilmOLD DREAM (FOR THE LOVE OF DUNE)
Still from First Sunrise of 2026
A Film byVikrant PatankarFormatFeature-length essay documentarySubjectDenis Villeneuve's Dune trilogy · Hans Zimmer's score · the desertStageIn developmentReleaseDecember 2026, around Dune: Part Three
Some films you watch. Some films you travel for.
Old Dream is a feature-length essay film. Real locations. Real interviews. Real travel. A love letter, not just to the films, but to the act of going to the films.
The ambition is simple and slightly mad: to make travelling for a film as normal as travelling for Broadway.
It began at sixteen, with a Doraemon episode about Hatsuhinode, Japan's tradition of greeting the first sunrise of the year. Ten years of first sunrises since. Each one filmed.
Last December 31, Bengaluru was smogged out. Every option from Manali to Kanyakumari was overcast. The truth had to be admitted: it had to be a desert. On January 1, 2026, the tenth sunrise was filmed in the Liwa Desert of Abu Dhabi, where Dune was shot. That footage became the announcement of this film.
Deserts have fascinated him since he was a teenager. Dune brought that fascination to its peak: watched more than ten times in cinema halls, every friend dragged along at least once.
The Pilgrimages (so far)
2018Dunkirk in IMAX 70mm and Interstellar in 35mm, Mumbai. Introduced in person by Christopher Nolan.2024An entire Melbourne trip booked for Interstellar's tenth anniversary in IMAX 70mm. Visa refused, twice.2025Made For the Love of Interstellar anyway. Then flew to New York just to watch 2001: A Space Odyssey in 70mm. And later flew to Los Angeles to witness Justin Hurwitz live at La La Land in Concert.2026The year's first sunrise, filmed in the Liwa Desert, where Dune was shot.Six days of Nolan in 70mm, then The Odyssey at the Chinese Theatre. Los Angeles, July 2026.
For the Love of Interstellar is a 40-minute essay on Christopher Nolan's film, made after the Melbourne pilgrimage collapsed. It is not a film about watching Interstellar in 70mm. It is a film about not being able to.
Its most haunting image sits in Mumbai itself: India's only IMAX 70mm projector, asleep under years of dust, last switched on in 2018. For the Love of Interstellar exists because a pilgrimage failed. Old Dream is the one where the pilgrimage happens.
"If cinema is a religion, then visiting movie theaters is the pilgrimage we must take."
A line that appears in two of his films.
Backed by the Kothari Fellowship, founded by Akshay Kothari, co-founder of Notion.
Watch the announcement film
Press and interviews: vikrantpatankar@outlook.com