To celebrate Pride Month, we are delighted to premiere Cactus Pears.

Set in rural Maharashtra, Cactus Pears follows Anand, a Mumbai call-centre worker who returns to his ancestral village to observe the ten-day mourning ritual following his father’s death. While navigating the pressures of family expectations and marriage, he reconnects with Balya, a childhood friend facing similar struggles. Over the course of the mourning period, their bond deepens into a tender and intimate relationship, creating a quiet exploration of grief, identity and queer love within a traditional rural community.

The internationally acclaimed, queer South Asian feature, Cactus Pears (Sabar Bonda), written and directed by Rohan Parashuram Kanawade, made history at the Sundance Film Festival in 2025, becoming the first Indian fiction feature and the first Marathi-language film to win the World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Prize. Further awards include the Jury Prize at the inaugural SXSW London.

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with Director Rohan Kanawade, hosted by Shiva Raichandani