SEXY DURGA

Director Sanal Kumar Sasidharan / 2017 / India

The main competition winner at this year's International Film Festival Rotterdam, Sanal Kumar Sasidharan's tense, nocturnal road movie about a young couple on the run will leave audiences alternately thrilled and terrified.

On the run in the dark of night, a young Indian couple – Durga and her lover, Kabeer – are picked up by two men in a minivan who offer to give them a ride to the train station. Things turn sinister when the drivers turn out to be less friendly than they first seemed, and the film plunges its characters into a deadly, claustrophobic nightmare on the road.

Largely improvised, Kumar Sasidharan's third feature is interwoven with documentary footage of a grisly Hindu festival in honour of the goddess Kali, in which men dance in ecstasy and are speared and hung from wires in divine offering. Taken together, these strands form a provocative exploration of the patriarchal, often violent attitudes towards women in Indian society.

'An atmospheric evocation of dangerous darkness in the middle of nowhere.' – The Hollywood Reporter

As part of The Bigger Picture program, Sexy Durga will be introduced by Dr Alison Horbury from the Faculty of Arts, The University of Melbourne.

Back To Index