| TITLE OF THE FILM | Under The Open Sky |
| DIRECTED BY | Sonum Sumaria |
| LANGUAGE | Kutchi, Sindhi, Gujarati (English subtitles) |
| YEAR | 2024 |
| COUNTRY | India, UK |
| DURATION | 100 minutes |
| SPECIAL NOTE | Kolkata Premiere |
PRINCIPAL CREW & CAST
| WRITING, CINEMATOGRAPHY & EDITING | Sonum Sumaria |
| LOCATION SOUND | Atul Lanjudkar, Shubham Bhamare |
| SOUND DESIGN | Atul Lanjudkar |
| SOUND MIX | Atul Lanjudkar, Denis Colina Ferrer |
| MUSIC | Tajdar Junaid, Kausikan Rajeshkumar |
ABOUT THE FILM
In the desert lands of Western India, against the backdrop of a rapidly industrialising country, the charming and charismatic family of Ahmed, Sakina and their five children are forced to give up their traditional way of life as nomadic camel-herders and adapt to a “settled” existence as daily labourers, spending their days loading carts of sand in the pursuit of a few hundred rupees. In a story that spans over five years, this film invites the viewer to breathe the same air as the camel-herders of Kutch, whose future is being suffocated by our rapidly modernising world.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Sonum Sumaria is an award-winning filmmaker who has been making documentaries with marginalised communities for the past twelve years. Her work includes ‘In the Shadows of Moscow’, a film exploring xenophobia in the Russian capital, ‘Goppi, The Cuban Indian’, a short about identity and belonging in Havana, and ‘Even the Crows: A Divided Gujarat’, a feature on Hindu nationalism which she co-directed with her sister Sheena. Sonum has a deep interest in nomadic and indigenous communities and is particularly drawn to the themes of identity and belonging.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
“For me, nomadic communities embody freedom, a concept I value above all else. Our current system, obsessed with profit and “progress”, comes with a huge price: for every culture that is wiped out, we lose a vital element of what makes up our humanity. This film immerses us in a pre-industrial way of life and a culture that has been around for centuries, as we are encouraged to question and reflect on what kind of world we want to live in.”
