THE SUN DOESN’T RISE
Set in Mumbai, Partho Sen-Gupta’s Sunrise seems ostensibly to be about the child sex trade in India; in fact it appears to be more concerned with exploring the mental state of Lakshman Joshi (Adil Hussain from Life of Pi), a law enforcement officer in charge of finding missing/kidnapped children, whose own little girl was abducted some time before the events in the film. The problem is, there are hardly any events in this film, and what events there are have little dramatic value and no resolutions.
Instead, what we get is a lot of Joshi chasing shadows, experiencing dreams and/or hallucinations concerning the child sex trade, and dealing with his delusional wife who periodically thinks she is seeing and interacting with her long-missing daughter. There is enough material here for perhaps a ten or fifteen-minute piece, and if Mr. Sen-Gupta’s footage were edited down to that length it would have some nice things going for it—a heavy, dark, rainy atmosphere, Mr. Hussain’s convincing performance, rich textures. But at 85 minutes Sunrise—which has hardly a story, no character development, barely any drama, and no conclusion—is not a full movie.
photos by Partho Sen-Gupta and Jean-Mac Ferriere
Sunrise
Stray Dogs
India / France | 2015 | Color | 85 min.
North American premiere at 2015 Tribeca Film Festival
for screening times and tickets, visit Tribeca
for more info, visit Sunrise on Facebook
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I watched this movie once and my heart aches for the children of sex trade; I couldn’t watched it a second time. The young girl that was kidnapped broke my heart.