Vanaja is a brilliant film on a coming of age story, that won the Best First Feature Award at the Berlin Film Festival in 2007. You don’t realise it’s Rajnesh Domalpalli's thesis film. Set in rural South India, it is the story of a 14 year-old, poor, low caste fisherman’s daughter. When a sooth-sayer predicts that she will be a great dancer one day, she finds work as a maid in the house of the local landlady, hoping to learn classical Kuchipudi dance while earning a living. She is a quick learner and blossoms. When the landlady’s 23 year old son returns from the US. Sexual chemistry is ignited between them, but the situation suddenly takes a dramatic turn, pitching her into a conflict in which class, caste, gender and political issues explode.
Thursday 11 August, 5.00 pm, Rialto 
Saturday 13 August, 4.30 pm, Rialto
Monday 15 August, 5.00 pm, Rialto
