The Cycle of Love

To find the Swedish girl who’d won his heart, a young Indian artist set out to cross the world – by bike.

Find out what happened next in this moving true story.

When P.K. Mahanandia was a baby, an astrologer predicted he’d marry a woman from outside India. But how? Mahanandia was Dalit – the lowest, poorest caste. Then, in 1975, Swedish backpacker Lotta von Schedvin paid the gentle, curious 23-year-old to sketch her portrait on a Delhi street, and soon fell for him. After two magical months together, von Schedvin returned home – but for Mahanandia, it wasn’t over. With his last $80, he bought a secondhand Raleigh bicycle and pedalled off on the hippie trail on what would become a 6000-mile quest. The Proclaimers would’ve given up long before … but, for this Tour de Romance, artistic talent and the kindness of many strangers were more than enough fuel to keep the wheels turning.

Documentarian Orlando von Einsiedel (Evelyn, MIFF 2019) is always looking for the best aspects of humanity, whether it be among gorilla-protecting Congolese rangers in Virunga (MIFF 2014) or Syria’s volunteer civil defenders in his 2016 Oscar-winning short The White Helmets. Here, he weaves the couple’s photos, letters and heartfelt interviews through beguilingly vintage-textured re-enactments of their courtship and Mahanandia’s odyssey, adding unscripted interactions with some of the colourful characters the director meets while filming along his subject’s original route. Be prepared to fall head over handlebars for these dreamers.

Content: Melbourne International Film Festival