SCREENSHOT: Asia Film Festival - Cactus Pears

The 2025 Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner, a love story set in a traditional Maharashtrian village, follows Anand, a city dweller who, during a 10-day mourning period for his father, rekindles a tender bond with his childhood friend. At the beginning of Cactus Pears, protagonist Anand has to leave his urban world to mourn his beloved father in his ancestral home, where he is inundated with memories and his relations question his marital status. Anand finds himself drawn to his childhood friend Balya, as their personal and emotional struggles bring them closer during Anand’s 10-day mourning period. Cactus Pears is a refreshingly intimate film that explores queer life in rural India in a new way. Far from imagining the region as inherently hostile to queerness, the film explores the deep complexities around family obligation, loss, and desire. By casting local actors and filming in his ancestral village, Cactus Pears becomes a semi-autobiographical portrait of love and hope found. even in the most unusual of places.
Winner, Sundance Grand Jury Prize 2025