24/01/24 – 19:30 The Venue
India 2024
Dir: Payal Kapadia
Cert 15
115 mins
Starring: Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, Chhaya Kadam
Three Hindu women work in a busy hospital in Mumbai. They are of different generations, but all feel the pressure of poverty, social expectations and the general precariousness of existence in a city teeming with so many transient, lonely people. Prabha and Anu are roommates and both nurses. Prabha, quiet and reserved, feels abandoned by her husband, who went to work in Germany immediately after their arranged marriage. The younger Anu is outgoing and loves to party. Her boyfriend, Shiaz, is a Muslim and their relationship has to be kept hidden from both families. Parvatny, the eldest of the women, a cook at the hospital, is about to be evicted from her home. She eventually decides to return to her native village on the coast, accompanied by the concerned Prabha and Anu. In Parvatny’s village, the polar opposite of the frantic city, the film takes a different and unexpected turn as we move out of the Mumbai nightscape and into the light. The ending is as mysterious as it is hopeful.
Cannes 2024 Grand Prix.
Trailer:
