Watch the trailer of Venice Film Festival nominee Soni, making its worldwide debut on Netflix tomorrow.
Tribe Desk
Soni is releasing on Netflix tomorrow! The film started its humble international journey at NFDC Film Bazaar 2017 where it won the Facebook Award for Best ‘Work-In-Progress’ project. It has since taken the film festival circuit by storm, winning many accolades on the way before finding its home in Netflix, where it releases tomorrow, 18 January.
Soni, a young policewoman in Delhi, and her superintendent, Kalpana, have collectively taken on a growing crisis of violent crimes against women. However, their alliance suffers a major setback when Soni is transferred out for alleged misconduct on duty.
It premiered in competition at the Orrizonti (Horizons) section of the 75th Venice International Film Festival | La Biennale di Venezia, playing next at BFI London Film Festival 2018, where it is also among the 10 films competing in the First Feature Competition for the Sutherland Award. It was followed by a screening at the 2018 MAMI Film Festival, where the film won the Oxfam Award on Gender Equality.
Most recently, it won the top award at the festival for Best Film at the second edition of the Pingyao International Film Festival (PYIFF), the Roberto Rossellini Award for Best Film wins a prize of $20,000, and received a special mention for “Achievement In Directing” for the film at the 2018 Asia Pacific Screen Awards.
The debut director Ivay Ayr was in part inspired by the 2012 Delhi gang rape to make a film about the gender and power dynamics in relation to sexual crimes. Upon being asked on why it went straight to Netflix, the debut director Ivan Ayr had to say, “I am excited that my film Soni will premiere on Netflix, which is accessible to millions of people around the world. We live in a society that has accepted to adjust and bear patriarchal norms and gender biases, and I believe that the release of the film on a global service like Netflix will help the voices of my characters reach a large and diverse audience base eloquently.”
With Geetika Vidya Ohlyan, Saloni Batra in pivotal roles the film is produced by Kimsi Singh and Kartikeya Narayan Singh, whose previous credit included the 2015 Festival de Cannes film Chauthi Koot by Gurvinder Singh, and the 2012 Venice Film Festival film Anhey Gorhey Ka Daan. And Singh has served as a Consulting Editor on this film. The screenplay is co-written by Ayr and Kislay.
