Opening Night Gala

CHOKHER BALI (A Passion Play), directed by Rituparno Ghosh. Based on Rabidranath Tagore's novel, this stunning period drama features superstar actress Aishwarya Rai as a young woman attempting to escape the stigma of widowhood and regain her romantic identity in British-occupied Kolkata during the early 1900s.

Reception to follow at SIR on 6465 Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood, CA 90028.

Dance performance by Fabulous Monsters

ANAHAAT (Eternity), directed by Amol Palekar. A gorgeous period drama set in the 10th century kingdom of Malla, where the impotent King and his lovely Queen struggle to respect an ancient custom dictating that a married woman must accept an alternate mate when her husband is incapable of producing an heir.

Shorts Program 1

THE BYPASS, directed by Amit Kumar. On an isolated road in the Rajasthan desert, the characters in this short film resoundingly communicate the expendability of humanity when they are drawn into a perilous and deadly game.

EQUATION, directed by Anuj Majumdar.
A man's inquisitive nature and the hasty judgment of his neighbor have far reaching consequences.

STARKISS: THE INDIAN CIRCUS GIRLS, directed by Jascha de Wilde and Chris Relleke.
An insightful inquiry into the lives of the young girls whose families indenture them as performers in India's oldest traveling circus.

Q&A with director Anuj Majumdar (EQUATION)

Tribute to Kirron Kher

KHAMOSH PANI (Silent Waters), directed by Sabina Sumar. Pakistan 1979: As General Zia Ul-Haq declares martial law, a widow (IFFLA tribute honoree Kirron Kher) sees her influence over her devoted adolescent son diminishing in favor of Islamic Fundamentalism, as growing tensions between Muslims and Sikhs conjure up a painful past that she has long kept secret.

Onstage discussion between Mrs. Kher and Screen International's Mike Goodridge, and a Q&A session to follow the screening of the film

BARIWALI (The Lady of the House), directed by Rituparno Ghosh. Kirron Kher stars in this contemporary drama exploring the world of a lonely woman who rents her home as the location for a film shoot and becomes attracted to the charismatic director, a man with questionable motives.

MATRUBHOOMI (A Nation Without Women), directed by Manish Jha. Set in an isolated village bereft of women, this provocative and violent drama centers on the brutal actions of a group of men when a young woman enters their lives.

Q&A with director Manish Jha moderated by Arati Mishro, producer and member of Women in Film International

MAQBOOL, directed by Vishal Bharadwaj. Om Puri leads a stellar cast as Shakespeare's tragedy (Macbeth) is updated to the present day underworld of Mumbai.

Shorts Program 2

COSMOPOLITAN, directed by Nisha Ganatra. Deserted by his family, a middle-aged man (Roshan Seth) seeks advice from a popular women's magazine in order to woo his neighbor, played by renowned actress Carol Kane.

123 MATH TOON, directed by Akhilesh Anandh. A teacher takes her students on a magical trip to Math Town to prove that numbers can be fun.

THE FLAME THAT LOVED TO DANCE, directed by Ujwal Nair. When the power goes out, a vibrant flame comes to life.

CUTE BUNNY, directed by Manasa Rao. A banana peel plots to trip up the bunny that tossed it aside.

SANGAM, directed by Prashant Bhargava. Two South Asian men on a subway share their nostalgia, loneliness, hopes and despair about life in America.

HOLLY-BOLLY, directed by Dishad Husain. Two young men pitch their art film to an industry filled with the desire for all things commercial.

HOLE, directed by Keshni Kashyap.
A hilarious treatise on love and longing, and that mysterious void many women sometimes find themselves edging towards.

Q&A with directors Nisha Ganatra (COSMOPOLITAN), Prashant Bhargava (SANGAM) and Keshni Kashyap (HOLE)

Children's Section

MALLI, directed by Santosh Sivan. This third feature by Santosh Sivan (THE TERRORIST) is a delightful children's tale about Malli, a precocious ten-year-old girl who searches in the forest for a magic bead that will cure her ailing friend.

Presented by Echo Lake Productions

A DAY IN THE LIGHT, directed by Christopher Bradley and Kyle La Brache Pujya Swamiji, a Hindu saint, discusses the concepts of forgiveness, desire and acceptance in this authentic and spiritually moving film.

UNTOUCHABLES VS. ARYANS: THE BATTLE FOR THE SOUL OF INDIA, directed by John L. Pudaite and Ivan Kostka. For centuries, Hinduism has relegated a low-caste group of people known as "Untouchables" to the fringes of Indian society. Today, a growing movement among Untouchables proposes to renounce Hinduism in order to achieve social, economic and spiritual freedom.

Q&A with directors Christopher Bradley and John L. Pudaite

WHEN THE STORM CAME, directed by Shilpi Gupta
This documentary profiles a village in Kashmir whose women survived an alleged rape by Indian security forces. The film reminds the viewer that rape is a "weapon" of conflict and is a timeless global phenomenon.

THE DAY MY GOD DIED, directed by Andrew Levine. On any given day in India and Nepal, hundreds of young girls are abducted from their villages and sold into the child sex trade. The victims describe their experience as "The day my God died" in this powerful and timely film, co-narrated by Tim Robbins and Winona Ryder.

Panel discussion with director Andrew Levine and Laura Lederer, Senior Advisor, Trafficking, US Department of State's Global Affairs presented by Asia Society

Children's Section

Closing Night Gala

HAZAARON KHWAISHEN AISI (A Thousand Dreams Such as These), directed by Sudhir Mishra. Sudhir Mishra captures the essence of India's 1975 state of emergency in this poignant drama, centering on three friends who become caught up in the political unrest and their own romantic turmoil.

Presented by director Sudhir Mishra and producer Pritish Nandy

Reception to follow at the festival's Cinema Lounge at ArcLight Cinemas.