Awards and festivals

Film description

Roya is a modern Muslim from the Bengali middle class. She is a theatrical actress, which is not entirely in accordance with the wishes of her mother and husband – the latter presses her to think about maternity. Meanwhile, the production she stars in is invited for a European tournée, giving Roya the opportunity to step up her career and represent her country in a play with an important political subplot.

The story of a 30-year old woman, her artistic maturation and "outgrowing" her young character from the play, is a tale about creative development and the dilemmas brought about by the expectations of the conservative society, but also about civil responsibility. The director uses fragments of Rabindranath Tagore's "Red Oleanders," a play from the beginning of the 20th century describing the clash of free spirit and social norms. In the background, we see a story of another woman, Roya's ex-housekeeper, working in dangerous conditions in one of the textile factories in Bangladesh. This layered, moving film is a rare opportunity to look at the contemporary reality of the region from a female perspective, shown in an honest, non-compromising way.

Jagoda Murczyńska