Farming the Revolution
Director:
Nishtha JAIN & Akash BASUMATARI
Duration:
105 minutes
Year:
2023
Category:
Feature length documentary film
Synopsis
In November 2020, Gurbaz Sangha, a 26-year-old Indian farmer, traveled 400 kilometers on his tractor, from his native Punjab to the outskirts of Delhi. Like him, hundreds of thousands of men and women, from all castes, religions, and generations, joined the capital with one goal: to oppose the agrarian reform imposed by the government of Narendra Modi.
The protesters set up camp at the four “borders”—the critical entry points of Delhi’s ring road. Despite the government’s disdain and increasingly violent police harassment, they stayed, season after season, revealing a diverse, courageous, and incredibly inventive India. After 14 months of an epic struggle, marked by a series of police raids that claimed the lives of 720 of them, the farmers won. Farming the Revolution offers a breathtaking immersion into the heart of the most impressive social and political movement of our time.
Country & Language:
India
Hindi and Punjabi
Subtitled in french and english
Production:
Little Big Story
Raintree Films
Co-produced by Arte France and Piraya Films
Nishtha JAIN
Nishtha Jain is an award-winning Indian filmmaker, known notably for Gulabi Gang (2012), Lakshmi and Me (2007), City of Photos (2004), and The Golden Thread (2022). Her films intersect with issues of gender, caste, and class. They consistently explore the connection between the personal and the political to reveal mechanisms of domination. Workers and popular movements hold a central place in Nishtha Jain’s cinema.
Akash BASUMATARI
Akash Basumatari has emerged as a rising documentary filmmaker in India, whose work bridges the invisible stories of marginalized communities and the wider world. His filmography includes several short documentary films, weaving a unique style of earthy and meditative exploration of rural communities, nature, culture, and existential themes, always infused with poetry and imagination.