Nizhalkkuthu (Shadow Kill), the latest movie by internationally acclaimed Malayalam film-maker Adoor Gopalakrishnan, will be premiered at the 59th International Film Festival on Sept 6.

The film, an Indo-French co-production, had been selected for the official competition section titled `Upstream" featuring `original and innovative films reflecting the latest trends in world cinema,' Gopalakrishnan told reporters here today.

Gopalakrishnan's earlier films, Anantharam (Monologue) was shown at Venice outside competition in 1988 and Mathilukal (Walls) was in competition at the festival in 1990 and fetched the international Critics' Prize.

He said it was a true honour that the film had been included in the recently introduced `upstream' competition section at Venice, the oldest film festival in the world, as they chose only films `against the current' in the category.

Adoor is leaving for Venice tomorrow to take part in the festival. The film had also been selected for the Toronto Festival in the `Masters' section where it would be screened on Sept 12 and 13, he said.

Nizhalkkuthu deals with the life of a hangman in the pre-independent southern princely state of Travancore of the 1940's. "The film explores the unknown terrains of the conscious and unconscious, of the real and the imagined- a search that is at once culture-specific and universal in relevance," he said.