Don't Worry About India

A filmmaker returns to his homeland in 2019 with mixed feelings: while right-wing nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi divides the country with his re-election, deep rifts also seem to be opening up within the filmmaker's own family. The director turns his camera on his own parents and—above all—on the family's employees. Is there social justice in the world's largest democracy? And where else would it be found if not in one's own household? With dry humor and an eye for the absurd, the director attempts to understand today's right-wing nationalist India and to connect collective and personal history. In a road trip across the country, he traces his family's history and paints a multi-layered portrait of his homeland and democracy in the 21st century. The Nama Film Collective, an association of Indian and European filmmakers, observes its protagonists with great closeness and sensitivity. Instead of resorting to clichés, the film shows how much courage, doubt, and hope lie in a generation caught between tradition and change. The camera remains in the thick of the action, conveying an immediate sense of the country's energy and complexity. DON'T WORRY ABOUT INDIA premiered at the renowned Visions du Réel documentary film festival in Nyon and was subsequently shown at the Solothurn Film Festival. There, the film was very well received and praised by critics as a powerful contemporary document about democracy and activism.