Dakhal (1982)

Run Time - 72 min.  |   Countries - India  |   MPAA Rating - NR
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Synopsis by Eleanor Mannikka

After a group of peasant farmers had converted some salt lands into fertile soil through their own dedicated perseverance, a corrupt landowner is devising means to take the land away from them. There is a widow with two children among the peasants who has made up her mind to take a stand against the landlord, no matter what. Her late husband was of a higher caste, and she herself was a member of a gypsy tribe, but she now has renounced her past existence. So when members of the tribe show up asking for shelter, she allows them to stay in her house but that is all she will do for them. The landlord catches on to this situation and makes sure the gypsies are well-fed, then he cons them into testifying against the widow in court. By the time the gypsies find out they have been deceived, it is too late to do anything about it -- and to make matters worse, the widow's house is set on fire by the landlord's thugs. Undaunted in the face of these disasters, the widow refuses to cave in and relinquish her hard-earned land.

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Keywords

against-all-odds, corruption, farming, gypsy, landowner, oppression, peasant, refuge, territory, widow/widower