Sunrise

Partho Sen-Gupta • 85 mins • India

In the sprawling megalopolis of Mumbai, Inspector Joshi searches for his six-year-old daughter, Aruna, who years ago didn’t come home after school. Tortured by guilt and driven by desire to revenge her, he get’s lost in repetitive hallucinations, chasing an elusive figure, trying to bring her back home.

Partho Sen-Gupta grew up in Mumbai, where he started working in the Bollywood studio’s at the age of sixteen. He received a scholarship to study at the prestigious film school La Fémis. His first feature film premiered at Berlinale in 2004. Sunrise is his second feature film. In April the film won the Black Tulip Award at Imagine Film Festival.

As Partho in his childhood almost got kidnapped, there is a personal angle to this psychedelic author film. Besides from this experience, he is interested in psychological scope of a human being. Human beings according to the director, have an inherent need for justice. With Sunrise he explores what would happen in a situation when a child goes missing and you know that you are never going to find it again. The most horrible thing that can happen to a parent and a child. Is the human mind capable of finding the justice it seeks?