Chhorii

Vishal Furia's 2021 Indian film begins with Sakshi, eight months pregnant, and her husband Hemant fleeing the city for a house in the middle of sugarcane fields. The house is silent, the surroundings endless, and she grows steadily more alone. Though the horror is built with supernatural elements, the real subject is the destruction of girl children before birth. Furia tells it through the history of the house rather than through direct speech; the field itself works as an enclosure. The film is the director's remake of his own Marathi film Lapachhapi. Nushrratt Bharuccha leads and is in nearly every scene. The cinematography uses the height of the cane as a constant obstruction of sight. Who it's for: those who like socially grounded Indian horror. Who it's not for: viewers sensitive to female infanticide and violence around childbirth; the film puts these at its centre.