Stranger Says: Deep within the powder keg of Kashmir, a beleaguered Muslim “half-widow” repeatedly makes the hazardous trek to the nearest government center to try to claim the death certificate of her long-missing husband. Her attempts to move on, however, are stymied by a society where, to quote one of the wormier bureaucrats, it’s the “responsibility of the people to keep their government happy.” Writer/director Praveen Morchhale’s film isn’t exactly subtle about its message, beginning with the image of an elderly woman literally tied to a chair. Thankfully, though, much of the thematic heavy-handedness is leavened by an expert use of framing, Shilpi Marwaha’s clear-eyed lead performance, and a final moment of irony that’s keen enough to shave with. (ANDREW WRIGHT)

SIFF Says: Her husband arrested, his fate a mystery, a Muslim woman in war-ravaged Kashmir lives in a grueling legal limbo as a "half-widow," battling a cruel bureaucracy while trying to care for her daughter and mother-in-law.