The Land of Dreams (2023)

In 2019, protests broke out after the Indian government enacted the Citizenship Amendment Act, which overtly discriminates against Muslims. Directed by, Nausheen Khan the film documentary follows the women at the forefront of the resistance. As protests spring up across India against the Citizenship Amendment Act, a group of intergenerational, multi-faith women gather at Shaheen Bagh, a Muslim neighbourhood in Delhi, to form a non-violent sit- in that grows into a nationwide movement. It soon faces both institutional and societal repression. Drawing on her identity as a Muslim woman, the filmmaker captures this movement, whilst questioning current notions of belonging, nationalism, and identity in India. Land of My Dreams encapsulates so much that is good in India, and what is being lost. In a celebration of diversity, various communities came together to peacefully protest a patently discriminatory law. And in crushing the protest with hate, violence, and arrests, the authorities snatched from the young their right to dissent in a democracy.