DOCUMENTARIES TELLING THE STORIES OF EXTRAORDINARY COMMON LIVES [POV Magazine IFFR Report]

[excerpt from an article covering films from IFFR - International Film Festival Rotterdam 2020, where “A Rifle and a Bag” had its world premiere in the Bright Future Competition where it won Special Mention of the Jury]

Isabella Rinaldi, Cristina Hanes and Arya Rothe’s documentary A Rifle and a Bag also revolves around a troubled woman. Set in today’s India, the film is a portrait of Somi, who is pregnant with her second child (hopefully, a girl). The woman and her husband were members of the Naxalites, a group of Communist rebels fighting for the rights of Indian tribes. The couple was forced to surrender to the government for their family’s welfare and are now being treated like third-rate citizens. Through several controlled interviews and more observational sequences, the No-Cut Film Collective’s work is an unmissable, timely account of their discrimination and sufferings.

Review by Davide Abbatescianni

Published on 3rd of February 2020 in POV Magazine.

The original version can be found here.