Bandit Queen

From acclaimed director Shekhar Kapur and set against the ever increasing gap between India's high and low castes, Bandit Queen tells a gripping, true tale of Phoolan Devi, a modern day Hindi Robin Hood. One of the most controversial works to come from India's Bollywood' studios, the film willingly depicts the gritty, barbaric nature of traditional Indian customs and one woman's struggle to break free from the oppressive, abusive and patriarchal structures which bind her.

Infamous among the rich, high caste and championed by the poor, Phoolan Devi, was the scourge of oppressors everywhere. Leader of a gang of bandits, she was responsible for numerous killings, kidnappings and robberies. Yet beneath her hard exterior was a woman who simply wanted equality in a viciously male dominated society. Managing to evade authorities and rival gangs for years, she finally surrendered to police in 1983 on her own negotiated terms in front of a ten thousand strong crowd chanting her name. She had become the avenging angel of the dispossessed, a hero in a society where crimes against women run rife.

Bandit Queen is a valuable and highly regarded addition to the foreign film canon, and a powerfully uninhibited portrayal of the strength of a single woman.