Aparna Sen bags another award for 'The Rapist' at Melbourne
text_fields
Mumbai: Indian filmmaker Aparna Sen is back with a movie that matters. She won the Best Director award for 2022 at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne for her film 'The Rapist.
Previously, the film won the prestigious Kim Jiseok Award at Busan International Film Festival. It was also celebrated across the London Indian Film Festival, Kolkata International Film festival, and the International Film festival of Kerala.
The hard-hitting film is described as a thought-provoking examination of the anatomy of rape, the psyche of its perpetrators, and the trauma experienced in its aftermath. Aparna Sen is positioning questions about gender, class, and institutional contradictions to introspect the situation that is common in India where thousands of women are raped in a short time.
The plot revolves around Naina, a criminal psychology professor. She is raped while visiting a slum to help the daughter of a school custodian trapped in a case of domestic violence and infanticide. Naina survives the attack but her colleague is dead. She goes on to fight the case in court while battling social prejudices outside. Once her rapist is sentenced to death, she realises she is pregnant. The movie deals with how Naina copes with the trauma.
Actress Konkona Sen returns to the screen to bring Naina to life and Arjun Rampal appears as her husband. Tanmay Dhanania, Anindita Bose, Harleen Rekhi, Gitanjali Rao, Chetan Sharma, and Vijay Kumar Dogra are also part of the film.