Shoebox

Mesmerizing, beautiful, inspirational---a story in which a girl watches her father struggle to keep his single-screen theatre alive, as her hometown Allahabad in India acquires a new name and starts losing traces of its past. Allahabad is in the throes of change as a new era sets in with the city being renamed. Looking development in the eye, an ailing Madhav Chatterjee battles to keep his decrepit single screen theatre alive. His daughter Mampu tends to her father, but finds him too immersed in the past, while she struggles to look both forward and back. The theatre contains within its crumbling walls an entire childhood and her most anchored friendship. Much like a river disappearing, the gentle flow of memories are held ransom by demands of the present. As the last few strands of her identity trickle out of the theatre, Mampu struggles to find a sense of belonging in her shapeshifting hometown. (Cinequest Festival)