Pooja, Sir

North American Premiere

Official Selection, 2024 Venice Film Festival
Official Selection, 2024 Busan International Film Festival

A taut police procedural set in the political tinderbox that is the India-Nepal border, POOJA, SIR follows one hard-boiled policewoman sent from Kathmandu to solve the mysterious kidnapping of a congressman’s young son and his best friend. All signs point to agitators from the dark-skinned and often scapegoated Madhesi minority, except something’s not adding up. Meanwhile, a new constitution has every Madhesi up in arms over their relentless and longstanding exclusion from society. With violent clashes escalating between police and protesters on every street, Pooja must navigate thorny local politics along with everyone’s doubt when a woman is in charge before time runs out.

Inspired by real events during the massive and deadly 2015 Madhesi protests, POOJA, SIR threads a crime thriller with the racial faultlines that tighten every transaction in the film’s small bordertown. Pooja is written as a non-Madhesi queer cop, one who fights gender expectations at every turn, yet whose eyes must still be opened to the injustices of a world that’s not her own. The cinematic tension is close to home, as Madhesi filmmaker Deepak Rauniyar and lead actor (and Rauniyar’s wife) Asha Magrati channeled the personal turmoil of living through racist encounters daily and Magrati’s awakening to her husband’s experience. Rauniyar and co-writer Magrati have named a female character “Pooja” in all their films, for the word in Hindu means “worship.” It’s their reminder to examine our notions of reverence and question if its embrace includes society’s silenced, even when they are loud.

 – Christina Ree