Dorathi Bharadwaj

The 43rd edition screens Neighbors, with five segments about the theme “neighbors”: not only about physical proximity, but also about relationships. In Brazil, Olga is a 90-year-old black woman who lost her husband one year ago; her neighbors, who come from different parts of the world, interrupt her grief. In Russia, an employee tries so hard to please his boss that he becomes inconvenient. An Indian woman, with the help of her male friend, decides to learn how to drive, an uncommon practice for women in the country. In China, an elderly, owner of an old and decadent barbershop, argues with his son, who wants to change the business. In South Africa, a group of homeless fights for the right to housing.

The Resonance (Anunaad) focuses on the soul-tearing topic of bridal slavery occurring in some parts of India. The film opens in a sleepy rural area surrounded by tea gardens where girls dream of migrating to other parts of the country to escape the poverty and hopelessness in which their families are plunged. Lured by a nexus of brokers and human traffickers, they begin a journey from the lush green fields of Assam to the dry, foggy winter of Haryana, in Northern India, where they risk being trafficked as purchased brides and face a life of constant humiliation and violence at the hands of their husbands and their families.