10 FILMS TO SEE AT VISAFF
1. Mehsampur: A desperate filmmaker drives a neurotic actress and an aging musician to a village of trauma in this mocumentary based on the life and death of Punjabi singer Amar Singh Chamkila.
2. Half Widow: Amid the backdrop of the Kashmiri conflict, a young woman must come to grips with the disappearance of her husband and embarks on a harrowing journey of self-discovery.
3. Maun: Set during a religious ceremony that is happening in a busy neighbourhood of Delhi, this is the story of a couple who finds out hours before the ceremony that their young daughter has been sexually molested by the same neighbour, who is holding the ceremony. Shocked and distraught with the discovery, they’re unable to decide on a course of action. Their dilemma brings out the ugliness of the society they live in.
4. Motorcycle Girl: An adventure drama based on the real life of motorcyclist Zenith Irfan, who, upon following her father’s lifelong dream, became the first woman to ride a motorcycle across Pakistan.
5. Baas Ek Pyali Chai: Tea is one of those things that everyone loves to have and that can also bring people together. This is a story of a man who waited for years for the chance to once again experience a special cup.
6. Awfully Pretty: Two nervous young lawyers meet on a first date. A few beers and many laughs later, the bill arrives with two fortune cookies. Their chemistry is crackling, the night seems destined to go a long way, but what did their fortune say?
7. The FOB and I: Two Indian cousins (one raised in India, one raised in America) move in together. For better or worse.
8. Forbidden Tikka Masala: A coming-of-old-age story that follows a religious vegetarian who finds a new lease on life after mistakenly eating chicken at her retirement party.
9. Pagg: When a hate crime clouds the Fourth of July, a Sikh-American grapples with his fears as he tries to celebrate the holiday with his wife and infant son. As tensions rise through various micro-aggressions and racially charged encounters, he takes a tragic decision that changes his identity forever.
10. Manto: With Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Rasika Dugal, Divya Dutta and Javed Akhtar, the film is a biographical account of writer Saadat Hasan Manto’s life. Directed by Nandita Das, the film follows the most tumultuous four years in the life of Manto, and that of the two countries he inhabits: India and Pakistan.