Friday, March 20 / 6:30 pm / Ottawa Art Gallery

Program: Mercenaire, Bayaan

Feature presentation \

This tautly constructed, suspenseful crime film begins with an anonymous letter arriving at a local newspaper in a small town in Rajasthan, northern India. That letter contains a desperate plea for an intervention and rescue of young women trapped in an all-female s community led by a cult leader named Maharaj. Detective Roohi (a mesmerizing performance by Huma Qureshi), the only daughter of a legendary police officer in the region, is assigned to investigate. On her very first day on the job, a girl goes missing and is later found dead. While the evidence she gathers clearly indicates seriously sinister activity, sexual grooming, and organized abuse, Roohi faces tenacious, systemic resistance to her investigation and interference from community leaders and even local townspeople who are grateful to and even revere Maharaj. As she enters further into this dark and increasingly dangerous web of cover up and conspiracy, Roohi recalls her father’s warning to not trust anyone. Determined more than ever to solve this case in the face of entrenched powers in the community and in her own police force, she must quickly identify who can be trusted and who is involved in stopping her. Gripping

Tom McSorley

Short film \

Mercenaire

2024 / 15 minutes / Quebec
Director: Pier-Philippe Chevigny
Language: French
Subtitles: English

Content Notes: Violence, implied animal cruelty

Hired at a slaughterhouse thanks to a social reinsertion program, an ex-convict struggles to find another job while repressing the violence that boils within him.