Ujjal Chatterjee's adaptation of Sushmita Banerjee's autobiographical account of her escape from her Afghan husband's country is beautifully performed, fiendishly meticulous, sensitively handled and steeped in knowing references.
Nevertheless, the director's debut work is, overall, only an admirable attempt to wrestle the harsh realities of rural Afghanistan away from the brutal regime imposed by its fundamentalist government, and fails to really make the political point sharply enough.
Manisha Koirala plays the victimised wife who raises her voice against horrific atrocities directed towards women in a male-dominated society. Generally, the cast rise above the limitations of this thriller, which ups its own stakes with immense political consequences.