SANTOSH

Ripped from her life of domesticity, Santosh (Shahana Goswami), a young widow now desperate to support herself, accepts an opportunity to inherit her husband’s job as a police officer in the rural badlands of India. Emerging from her abrupt training, she takes her first-ever taste of something truly mysterious, disconcerting and fascinating to her: authority. And yet nothing is clear, not where she fits in this world, not how she should handle the corruption and oppression she is both target of and party to, not even who is innocent or guilty. Quickly taken under the wing of Sharma (Sunita Rajwar), a charismatic and commanding older female inspector, Santosh begins an investigation into a low-caste girl’s brutal murder that plunges her into a gritty world of crime and corruption, forcing her to confront not only the brokenness of the system around her, but her own place within it. A fresh perspective on the forensic thriller, SANTOSH sinks the viewer into a contemporary India where social mobility remains cut off for millions even amid rapid change.  Q & A with Director following screening.