India's Daughter

Leslee Udwin : 2015

In 2012, 23-year-old Jyoti Singh had her whole life in front of her. A promising medical student and the apple of her adoring parents' eyes, she was only months away from completing her studies. But after an evening screening of Life of Pi with a male friend, she met a terrible fate on a moving Delhi bus, gang raped and brutalised by a number of strangers. By the time of her death a few days later, she had become a national symbol, and the focus of mass protests the length of India against an endemic rape culture and the ongoing subjugation of women. The director speaks to an impressive array of interviewees, from the accused rapists, awaiting their fate on death row, to Singh's parents and the defence team, whose shocking attitudes towards women are barely decipherable from the rapists they so staunchly defend. An impassioned plea for change, the film explores the compelling human stories behind the incident and the political ramifications throughout India. But beyond India, the film lays bare the way in which societies and their patriarchal values have spawned such acts of violence globally. Leslee Udwin's documentary, her directorial debut, screened at Sheffield Doc/Fest 2015.