Post-screening discussion with Ingeborg Bratoeva-Daraktchieva, Film Critic, Bulgaria

A touching film that explores gender and sexuality. A maternally neglected girl finds comfort in her uncle and his transgender partner. Beautiful cinematography and a lovely musical score add to the story of an extraordinary family unit.

On what he expected to be a typical day, Prasad, a reluctant pimp, must investigate the sudden disappearance of his network’s most demanded prostitute, Nimmi. Just hours before, a nervous young man named Mathi was preparing to admit to his lifelong friend that he has always identified as a woman and that he has always been in love with him. While Prasad questions how he landed in this business, his guilty conscience fuels him to locate Nimmi and eventually leads him to Mathi, who is busy dealing with the repercussions of his confession.

Khoon Diy Baarav enters the vexed political scenario in Kashmir through the lives of families of the victims of enforced disappearances. The film is a non-sequential account of personal narratives and reminiscences ruptured by violence, undermined by erasure, and over-ridden by official documents that challenge truth. Made over nine years it explores memory as a mode of resistance, constantly confronting and morphing- from the personal to political, individual to collective. It looks at the ways in which those affected by violence have no choice but to remember.

The King of the Belgians (94 minutes)
The King of the Belgians is on a state visit in Istanbul when his country falls apart. He must return home at once to save his kingdom. But a solar storm causes airspace and communications to shut down. No planes. No phones. With the help of a British filmmaker and a troupe of Bulgarian folk singers, the King and his entourage manage to escape over the border. Incognito. Thus begins an odyssey across the Balkans during which the King discovers the real world - and his true self.

The Baulkham Hills African Ladies Troupe (85 minutes)

CHAR The No-Man’s Island (97 minutes)
The film revolves around Rubel, a young boy who wants to attend school, but whose financial circumstances force him to become a smuggler from India to Bangladesh. Every day, he has to cross a river that forms the border between the two countries. He stays at an island named Char which is a no-man's land and is patrolled by the border security force of both countries.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWW_5lIbk2k

Discussion with Shashank Srivastava (10 minutes)

Zoology (97 minutes)
Middle-aged zoo worker Natasha still lives with her mother in a small coastal town. As she struggles for independence, she has to endure the absurd reality of her life filled with gossip spread by the women around her. She is stuck and it seems that life has no surprises for her until one day… she grows a tail.

LOS COLORES DE LA MONTAÑA
(90 minutes, Colombian film)

Come and enjoy a great film and some delicious Colombian empanadas!

Required attendance for all SLI students taking Russian