Take Off

Sameera is a nurse from Kerala; she is divorced, has lost custody of her son, and is estranged from her family. To earn more she goes to work at a hospital in Tikrit, in Iraq. Other Malayali nurses go with her. Not long afterwards the city falls to an armed group. The hospital is surrounded, the nurses are taken hostage, and communication is cut. The embassy in India begins an attempt at rescue. Mahesh Narayanan's first film rests on the real events at Tikrit in 2014, when forty-six Indian nurses, most of them from Kerala, were held. The production built the screenplay by speaking with survivors. At the centre of the narrative is not action but decision: the solidarity among the nurses and Sameera having to speak for the group. Parvathy Thiruvothu plays Sameera, Kunchacko Boban her husband, and Fahadh Faasil the diplomat. Who it's for: Viewers who like Malayalam cinema, adaptations of real events, and women-centred narrative. Who it's not for: The scenes of tension are harsh and the subject is heavy. The rescue section also runs too smoothly compared with the rest.