Fire in the Mountains (DVD)

In northern India, a breathtakingly beautiful Himalayan community attracts tourists by commingling South Asian and Swiss Alps aesthetics. Debut filmmaker Ajitpal Singh tells an unconventional story of feminist strength while “accentuating the [region’s] spectacular exteriors and wide-canvas nature shots” (Variety). One local woman competes with her neighbors for business while battling the strictures of patriarchy, a local infrastructure from hell, and religious superstitions. She saves money, uses feminine wiles to subvert the corrupt powers-that-be, and piggy-backs her son up and down the mountainside to medical appointments with condescending doctors. In the end, our heroine’s tightly wound grit must find release… in triumph, or madness, or both. (Sonya Chung, Film Forum)