School principal Nina Valentinovna could not be prouder as she sits before an interviewer, sharing her thoughts for a news channel. She talks of her star pupil, Pyotr, a maths genius and a child with special needs. 

The principal extols her school’s values and how they train their students to always uphold them, while eschewing topics of conflict and social turbulence. However, as Valentinovna overlooks a crucial truth about the impact of a war and violence-ridden society on children, and how it translates into their own equations and dynamics, and instead only offers empty, clinical facts which might mean very little in the real world, another parallel reality is unfolding outside this interview. 

Young Max becomes a focal point in what follows, presenting a very incisive glimpse into how children operate within their spaces away from the adult world. A skilled screenplay that portrays this, coupled with expert performances that strengthen the film right till the very end, ensures that the narrative offers a hard-hitting commentary on innocence, and more shockingly, on the cruelty that can thrive within the same realm. The apathy of adults, or worse, their personal ambition mixed with casual indifference, further adds an emotional layer to the storytelling, all of which together present a story that is sure to stay with the viewer for a long time.

Crease  | Short Film of the Month

The documentary engages with a crucial, and difficult subject matter. It introduces the viewer to primarily four men who had all been given varying sentences of incarceration between 1994 and 2003. Alongside the story of their incarceration, however, is another story, one of hope and upliftment. The film deep dives into a bachelor’s degree program in California that began with the intention of not only giving degrees to inmates but also allow them a second chance at life. 
As the documentary's subjects take us into their journey of reform and eventual rehabilitation within society, they use words like “reenergized”. They speak of a life they never thought was possible for them, and lastly, and more significantly, they speak of breaking the cycle of injustice, violence, and crime that had previously seemed unshakable. 
Through the scenes of prison life and the world beyond as well, the film presents how dehumanizing the experience of incarceration can be, often depriving inmates any and all chance of reclaiming their humanity in society. It engages with ideas of redemption and hope, alongside internal prison politics, the subsequent networks, and a sense of brotherhood that it can conjure. 
The overarching message of the film remains one of the freeing power of education, and the influence it exerts on not just one aspect of existence, but in the formation of culture altogether, alongside the significance of community effort in uplifting human society as a whole.

College in Prison | Short Film Nominee

The short narrative has the noble intention of spreading awareness about the lives of those who live with disability. It presents to us the many hardships and obstacles that plague them. The same is attempted by taking us into a busy morning in the life of Mrs. Gupta, a school principal who finds herself moving from one task to another at breakneck speed. 

Consequently, she doesn’t have the time for things which are not on her agenda for the day. However, this happens to be a specifically demanding day as she finds herself met with two different people, both of whom live with a disability. While one of them has arrived for a possible job position, the other wants to enroll as a student. It is in this manner that the story wants to hold a mirror to society’s inherent ableism. 

As for Mrs Gupta, who is dismissive of both of these two characters, a shocking accident in her own life makes her change her ways drastically. By showing all of this, Ek Nayee Soch, Ek Naya Nazaria shares its core message with you.

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