CLOSING FILM
CANADIAN PREMIERE & FEATURE FILM DEBUT
Director: Manish Mundra
India | 2022 | 117 min | drama | Hindi, with English subtitles
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Inspired by a real-life incident, Siya tells the tragic story of a teenage girl from Devganj village in Uttar Pradesh. After being brutally raped by an incumbent Member of the Legislative Assembly, she decides to fight for justice against all odds by seeking the help of a lawyer friend. But what kind of justice can a poor peasant girl expect against influential male members of the community? In the vein of Nisha Pahuja’s award-winning documentary To Kill a Tiger (2022), Siya constitutes a poignant and urgent reflection on the fate of sexual assault victims in a male-dominated society where accountability fades in the face of privilege. And while it is made to shock the viewer, particularly in its depiction of a deeply flawed justice system, the film remains quite restrained in its depiction of the barbaric acts perpetrated against the heroine. Emotional realism is the key to affect here, rather than the spectacle of her physical ordeal, allowing director Mundra to capitalize on Pooja Pandey’s profoundly empathic and painfully researched performance in the lead role.
MANISH MUNDRA is known primarily as a producer and founder of Drishyam Films, a global motion picture studio responsible for several international award-winning films such as Ankhon Dekhi (2014), recipient of three Filmfare Awards and three Screen Awards; Masaan (2015); Umrika (2015); Waiting (2015); Dhanak (2016); and Newton (2017), winner of the National Award for Best Hindi Film and India’s official entry to the Academy Awards in 2018. He is also known for establishing the Drishyam–Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab for aspiring Indian screenwriters. In 2022, he first donned the director’s hat for Siya, a poignant social drama nominated for the Best Debut Award at the 53rd International Film Festival of India. “Our film is an exploration, a study of helplessness when a survivor of sexual abuse decides to fight”, says Mundra. “We wanted this exploration to be raw, brazen and to hit hard in an urge to generate anger and thereby conversations on what truly needs to change. We hope that the film challenges our notions of abuse, the aftermath, and the fact that, when the abuse doesn’t end at the rape, how far does a person really need to go to get the justice that she deserves.”
scr.: Haider Rizvi, Manish Mundra, Samah | cin.: Rafey Mehmood, Subhransu | ed.: Manendra Singh Lodhi | cost.: Sujata Rajain | art dir.: Seema Kashyap | snd: Manoj M. Goswami | mus.: Rajarshi Sanyal | cast: Pooja Pandey, Vineet Kumar Singh, Madhvendra Jha | prod.: Raghav Gupta
Free parking during the screening.
$15 per ticket, plus H.S.T. ($1.95) & service fees.
