Mississippi Masala

Mira Nair's film about the relationship between two communities. Mina's family is of Indian origin and lived in Uganda. In 1972 Idi Amin expelled the country's Asian population and the family had to leave everything behind. Years later they are in America, working at a small motel in Mississippi. There Mina meets Demetrius, a Black man who has built his own carpet cleaning business. Their relationship unsettles both communities. That is the hard thing about the film: a family that was itself driven out of a country by racism objects to their daughter's relationship with a Black man. The father's line runs alongside: he has spent years in a legal fight over his property in Uganda and cannot stop returning to the past. Denzel Washington plays Demetrius and Sarita Choudhury plays Mina. It was shot in both Mississippi and Uganda. An important work for anyone who likes American independent cinema and drama built on migration. For a viewer expecting a simple love story, the film's real subject is how two communities look at each other.