»The film is a call for change, urging future generations to break the cycle of silence and oppression.« Semmalar Annam

Mayilaa is a young mother, caught in a cycle of domestic violence and crushing poverty. She works as a day labourer, sorting scrap metal from toxic sand. One crisis follows another: she loses her job, her alcoholic husband becomes increasingly threatening and, on top of that, her young daughter suffers from severe constipation – a sharp metaphor that threads its way through the film. Mayilaa turns to the village goddess Mayilaatha for help, but she cannot afford the sacrificial sari.
In her directorial debut, Semmalar Annam paints a realistic, compassionate but also wryly comic portrait of the realities of many women in India. With little education and few opportunities, Mayilaa summons the courage to start anew as a travelling straw mat seller. Without any business experience, she and her daughter set off on a rickety moped, travelling from village to village, learning as they go. Along the way, they encounter deep-rooted chauvinism and rigid class divisions – wealthy people who welcome them in, and poor people who guard the gates of the rich and turn them away. But there is also love, unexpected solidarity and safe spaces where women look out for each other. What starts as a struggle for survival gradually becomes something larger as Mayilaa asserts her right to a life of dignity for herself and her child, one shaped by her own free will.

Guest: Semmalar Annam

German premiere

With the support of Goethe Institut