“‘Calling Sister Midnight / What can I do about my dreams…?” Any film that calls its shots to the best track off of Iggy Pop’s The Idiot — a song co-written by producer David Bowie and re-used for “Red Money,” a track off of Lodger — is worthy of attention. That sort of laconic, unassuming punk sensibility also rests at the center of Karan Kandhari’s debut feature, SISTER MIDNIGHT.
Uma (Radhika Apte) rides the train into Mumbai with a new husband and a heap of uncertainty around this new arrangement. Days go by with Uma struggling to hold a domestic life in a cramped apartment while her beau guzzles away their earnings with each pint. As this tragicomedy continues, Uma does what any woman should do in her station: acquire a taste for blood. Not only does this further alienate her from her surroundings — animal necromancy looks cool but smells awful — but it also unleashes a more strident and primal Uma as she seeks a path of personal reclamation.
Between the 10/10 needle-drops, deadpan humor and creative wanderlust, Kandhari stands next to Wes Anderson or Jim Jarmusch as a purveyor of the type of ultra-cool genre fiction that makes you a better hang at parties. (Synopsis courtesy of Fantastic Fest)
“SISTER MIDNIGHT quietly rebels against the arbitrary rules of filmmaking to create something supremely self-assured in voice and style. The film is both masterfully unadorned and wholly original, steering forward confidently under Kandari’s guidance. It’s a movie best viewed with absolutely no primer, a delicious little adventure with a humorous — and human — heart.” —Proma Khosla, IndieWire “SISTER MIDNIGHT breaks free from the shackles of submissive feminine stereotypes and raucously leans into a woman behaving very, very badly.” —Hanna Flint, Time Out “In SISTER MIDNIGHT, it is the oddball who rules, and Uma, surrounded by fluttering (zombie) birds – not to mention bleating goats — is like a weirdo Disney princess, and queen of the misfits…. Adroll, strange, cool freak of a film.” —Anton Bitel, Little White Lies
