A Night of Knowing Nothing

Story

A letter by a film student, L, addressed to her lover, is discovered in the corner of a student dorm.
This fictional narrative, delivered via a woman’s recitation, reveals the caste system as the source of the tragic end to L’s romantic relationship, and ties in with actual anti-government protests that occurred in 2016 and the persecution of the student movement by a far-right political party and Hindu supremacists. Fiction and reality lose their distinction as young people’s daily lives, L’s tragic love story, and the tense struggle represented by the altercations between street protesters and police all meld in monochrome. Capturing the passion and conviction of the protesters as well as a record of the determination of the filmmakers, the film provides a snapshot of the current state of India. (From the official catalog of Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival 2023)