1984, When the Sun Didn't Rise (2017)

• 87%
• 2017
• Documentary
• Teenaa Kaur

The film is a narrative of three Sikh women living in Widows Colony wherein they lost their homes and men in the violent killings of 1984 when over 2733 Sikhs were killed in Delhi and over 9000 in India after the death of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.It is the biggest state sponsored massacre in India which has been systematically removed from the public memory calling it anti-Sikh riots.Every evening Sikh women from the "Widows Colony" share their lives. They are nestled away from the so-called developed Metropolis New Delhi to a rehabilitated colony as their men and family members who were daily wage earners were killed in the massacre of 1984. Three decades later, the filmmaker Teenaa Kaur who has witnessed the impact of violence in her home and had grown up listening to stories wants to know the truth about the incident and how it influences her identity. She connects with the women and children to know their journey and impact of violence after so many years. One evening, the women question what happened to the dead bodies of their men who were killed in the massacre? This brings a turn around in the lives of the women as they set on a journey to reconcile the truth. Harbans Kaur works each day but dreams about her husband whose dead body no one ever found. Kuldeep Kaur won the case of her husband's murder for battling for eleven long years but is still looking for the house that she lived 33 years ago.The young Mohan Singh, born in 1984, is into drugs and misses his son. And his mother Meera Kaur struggles to put him into the drug rehab. The women negotiate the tragedy in their lives each day but they work and move ahead with resilience and fortitude. The film follows an observational approach to the lives of the women and Mohan Singh who negotiate everyday to live bravely. The primary themes in the film are courage, resilience, justice and identity.