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RAI FILM Festival takes place on 27-30 March 2025. Learn more.

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2019

Paani: of women and water

Directed by Costanza Burstin

2018 – 22'

Synopsis

Against the bleached sky of Rajasthan, we encounter the women of a small Muslim village as they engage in their work. Here, water binds their daily labour rituals: they collect and carry water in massive urns, they clean plates and clothes with it, water their animals, and even maintain their homes with it (we see them churn mud to smear across their floors). A record of the ongoing cycles of women’s labour (“we make food, we eat, we sleep, we wake up…”), their sense of humour and resilience, and the ways the community co-operate to deal with scarcity.

RAI FILM Festival 2025

The next RAI FILM Festival will take place in person from 27-30 March 2025 at the Watershed Cinema and the Arnolfini International Centre for Contemporary Arts in Bristol (UK) and online throughout the month of April 2025.