Shape of Momo

A young woman leaves her career in Delhi and returns to her Himalayan home village in a quietly beautiful, multigenerational portrait of women.

University-educated Bishnu comes back to her mountain village in Sikkim, northeastern India, where her grandmother, mother, and pregnant sister still live. She is quickly confronted with the expectations imposed by both family and community – norms that define how a young woman should live her life, and which collide head-on with her own aspirations. Tribeny Rai’s feature debut is a deeply personal and impressively nuanced homecoming drama about love and family bonds, resistance to patriarchy, and the courage it takes to choose one’s own path. A luminous film, carried by a remarkable female ensemble.

• Johan Blomqvist