A demonic rideshare passenger, a washing machine-induced sexual awakening and a decades-long quest for male birth control all share screen time at this year’s South Asian Film Festival.
The 32nd annual fest returns to the Enzian from Oct. 3-5 with five programs spanning romance, crime drama, documentary and horror that each make quick work of any idea of reducing South Asian cinema to Bollywood alone.
Opening the first weekend of October, The Cycle of Love raises the bar considerably for modern romance after a Delhi street artist bikes 6,000 miles in pursuit of love. The returning Chhota Cinema shorts showcase delivers some of the weekend’s stranger turns, including The Last Ride, where a Mumbai rideshare driver’s final fare is a witch, and Kuchar (The Itch), whose coming-of-age awakening starts with the spin cycle. Then there’s Give It a Shot, a documentary that follows an 83-year-old scientist’s decades-long pursuit of reversible male birth control, before Hanging By a Wire closes things out 900 feet above a Pakistani ravine.
We’d tell you there’s something for everyone, but the washing machine probably already made that point. Come curious.
Various times Saturday-Monday, Oct. 3-5, Enzian Theater, 1300 S. Orlando Ave., Maitland, enzian.org, $65.
