Pebbles

P. S. Vinothraj's first film is set in the parched countryside around Madurai. A violent, alcoholic father sets out to bring back the wife who fled his beating to her family, dragging his young son along. Thrown off the bus, they have to walk the rest of the way. Almost the whole film is that walk. Heat, dust and distance become the narrative itself; there is scarcely any plot. Vinothraj has said the film began from an incident in his own family, and it never observes from a distance. A parallel strand shows another family living through the same drought and hunting rats for food. That section establishes the economic ground: deprivation stands behind the violence, though the film does not offer it as an excuse. It won the Tiger Award at Rotterdam and was India's submission for the Academy Awards. Who it's for: those who like hard, observational Indian independent cinema. Who it's not for: viewers who want to avoid domestic violence and the mistreatment of a child; the film shows both continually.