Focus: Edges of Belonging

Prominent themes among this year’s Indian submissions include migration, displacement, and the complexities of womanhood within a patriarchal society, all converging on the pivotal question of belonging — how it is defined, constructed, denied, and reclaimed. These films often move with a quiet grace revealing not just the weight of survival, but the beauty of resilience and enduring human capacity to find meaning, connection, and hope in the margins.

In this program, I wanted to focus on lives on the edges of belonging — those of transgender individuals, migrant labourers, climate-displaced people, and women navigating patriarchal structures. The program aims to amplify these voices and explore the complexities of its subjects’ experiences.

Despite legal recognition, transgender people in India face a range of systemic challenges: social discrimination and violence, legal and bureaucratic barriers, lack of access to employment, police abuse, and criminalization. In spite of these challenges, they continue to reclaim space and visibility.

In a patriarchal society, women are often denied the ability to fully belong, and their identities are shaped by roles imposed upon them. Those who choose not to fit in invite consequences. But in the resulting conflict lie quests to belong.

Migrant labourers are the invisible backbone of India, the silent architects of its cities and infrastructure who hold up the country — and yet the country rarely holds them in return.

Families displaced as a result of climate change are caught between government apathy and environmental uncertainty.

Together, these stories reveal that survival is not only a fight to stay alive, but also a claim to belonging. I hope this section of five films offers you meaningful moments to explore, reflect upon, engage with, and enjoy.

— Deepika Suseelan