The Arts Arena is pleased to be part of the exciting L’Europe autour de l’Europe European Film Festival for the fifth year, presenting, screening, and discussing a selection from the Festival’s documentary films. This year’s selection is Jungle Sisters (80 mini.), an Indian/UK production, directed by Chloe Ruthven. The screening will be followed by a discussion with Western women who know India well and have spent significant time there in the last several months;the film festival’s founder, Irena Bilic, will also be present. A reception follows.
Synopsis. In 2008 the Indian Government launched an initiative to train 500 million of the rural poor to work in its growing industrial sector. Chloe Ruthven went to visit her sister Orlanda, who had lived in India for over a decade and works with a company that places girls into textiles factories to produce clothes for corporate giants such as Gap. The result is a film that follows two village girls, Bhanu and Bhuntu, as they are inducted into the working world overseen by Orlanda and become part of India’s business-friendly future. The realities of life on and off the factory floor force all three women to face up to the dilemmas produced by the confrontation of social justice, family loyalty, and corporate responsibility. This is a very thought-provoking film.