Amid an escalating crisis of farmer suicides, a young widow, Sanjeevani, intent on the seemingly impossible task of providing a better life for herself and her children, refuses to surrender to despair or the cultural ostracization of widows. In a quiet yet powerful act of resistance, she discovers a community of other widows, confronting, sharing, and collectively overcoming grief. Through this shared sisterhood, she forges a path forward, finding unexpected strength in being there for others like her.
Kinshuk Surjan is a 35-year-old Indian filmmaker based in Bhopal. His first short film POLA won the Indian National Student Film Award for Best Film and Best Script in 2013. After working as a second assistant director on the film ISLAND CITY, awarded at the Venice Film Festival, he was awarded a scholarship to pursue his master’s at DocNomads. During this period, his short DIVIDED LINES was screened at the 2015 Jihlava Film Festival. In 2017, his graduation film, DE FLANDRIEN, won the Flanders Audiovisual Fund’s VAF WILDCARD, which enabled him to pursue the research for his first feature film, MARCHING IN THE DARK.
The New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) is the oldest, most prestigious film festival screening premieres of feature, documentary and
short films made from, of, and about the Indian subcontinent in the Independent, arthouse, alternate and diaspora genres.
