If it’s the function of a documentary to open a window on the world – a part of the world that isn’t revealed by the nightly TV news – then this film is a distinct and deliberate success: a product of the NoCut Film Collective, founded in 2016 by Romanian Cristina Hanes, Indian Arya Rothe and Italian Isabella Rinaldi to explore collaborative and transcultural ways of film-making.
A Rifle and a Bag is about the life of a quiet Indian couple, Somi and her husband Sukhram, who have one son and a baby on the way. They are looking for work and are concerned about schooling for their children, but their condition is more complex than most: they are former Naxalites, ex-members of a Maoist guerrilla group that operated in the remote and forested areas of central India, fighting for land and employment rights for the poor. But the couple took advantage of an amnesty offer to any Naxalite who agreed to renounce their membership, and now they are apparently poised to embark on their new lawful life.
