Virginia Film Festival

Grand Prix Winner, Cannes Film Festival 

The first Indian film to compete in Cannes’s main competition in 30 years, Payal Kapadia’s lyrical fiction feature debut tells the story of two roommates who work as hospital nurses in Mumbai. Prabha’s life is thrown off course by an unexpected gift from her estranged husband in Germany. The younger Anu is involved in a secret romance with a Muslim man that combines the excitement of clandestine trysts with the pressure of hiding the relationship from her Hindu parents.

When Prabha’s friend Parvati is evicted from her home and heads to her coastal village, she and Anu decide to join. Punctuated by moments of quotidian beauty that pierce through urban struggle and daily indignities, Kapadia’s film glows with an inner radiance drawn from the transformative power of female friendship.

Introduction by Samhita Sunya (VAFF)

“Like the glittering lights of the city, lingers expansively in the memory.”
-Justin Chang, The New Yorker

“An early majestic masterwork, told with incredible control and uncommon force of will.”
-Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com

This film is part of the Middle Eastern and South Asian Cinema Series presented by UVA Arts Council and supported by Institute of the Humanities and Global Cultures.