Bayaan

Director: Bikas Ranjan Mishra

Cast: Huma Qureshi

A detective story set in the remote town of Rajasthan, where a revered leader is accused of sexual assault by an anonymous letter.

Against her superiors’ orders, young officer Roohi (Huma Qureshi) takes it upon herself to get to the bottom of a contentious sexual assault scandal involving some of the most powerful men in her community, unknowingly stumbling into a large web of corruption, mass complacency, and institutional enabling. Firmly rooted in the police procedural, Bayaan recalls the tenacity of Det. Oliva Benson from Law & Order: SVU, all while carving out a distinctively contemporary and regionally specific take on the familiar genre. Bayaan is a strong vehicle for Qureshi, who delivers a commanding performance as a woman fighting against both a system designed to protect abusers and the people who help keep it in place. (ANNA BOGUTSKAYA)