Anusha Rizvi, Mahmood Farooqui | India | 2010 | 106’ | Hindi, Bundelkhandi, English spoken, English subtitles
Peepli [Live], directed by Anusha Rizvi and produced by Bollywood star-producer-director Aamir Khan, is a vitriolic satire on government schemes to prevent desperate farmers committing suicide—and the media.
In a tiny corner of a giant country, a poor farmer’s family is about to lose its land as they are unable to repay a loan. His brother has a plan to win it all back: commit suicide. The government offers the family of any farmer committing suicide a compensation of Rupees 100,000 ($2,000). As Natha plans to commit suicide, it sets in motion a chain of events which finds Natha in the eye of a storm. The local bigwigs, the state government, high ranking bureaucrats, federal ministers and the national media all want a piece of the mad circus that ensues. When Natha escapes to the city alive, it maybe to a fate worse than death–as one of the billions of uprooted, faceless workers of Shining India.
Tuesday 16 August, 7.00 pm, Rialto 
Wednesday 17 August, 9.45 pm, Rialto
