Sivaranjiniyum Innum Sila Pengalum

This is one of the truly outstanding Indian films of the year, based on three stories taken from prominent Tamil writers. In the first, a lazy husband gets emotionally and physically abusive with his wife. In a more affluent setting, an educated and successful daughter-in-law is denied her right to privacy by her extended family; while elsewhere, the hopes of an aspiring sports champion are crushed when she is married off into a modern middle-class family. But all three women rise to these challenges with such energy and gusto that, by the end of the film, they will have you standing up to applaud them and cheer them on. (Göteborg Film Festival)