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Court
Directed by Chaitanya Tamhane
Thursday, November 30, 6 pm
“Tamhane’s quiet techniques build to pure, cold fury.” —Farran Smith Nehme, New York Post
Winner of top prizes at the Venice and Mumbai film festivals, Chaitanya Tamhane’s Court is a quietly devastating, absurdist portrait of injustice, caste prejudice, and venal politics in contemporary India.
An elderly folk singer and grassroots organizer, dubbed the “people’s poet,” is arrested on a trumped-up charge of inciting a sewage worker to commit suicide. His trial is a ridiculous and harrowing display of institutional incompetence, with endless procedural delays, coached witnesses for the prosecution, and obsessive privileging of arcane colonial law over reason and mercy. What truly distinguishes Court, however, is Tamhane’s brilliant ensemble cast of professional and nonprofessional actors. 2014, India, DCP, in English, Marathi, Hindi and Gujarati with English subtitles, 116 minutes.
With introduction and post-screening discussion by Lisa Björkman, Assistant Professor, Urban and Public Affairs, UofL.
This screening is co-presented by UofL’s Commonwealth Center for the Humanities & Society.