In the organizer's words:

Synopsis:

After the death of his father, call center employee Anand from Mumbai spends the traditional ten-day mourning period in his home village with his mother. Instead of being able to come to terms with the loss, he has to fight his way through a jumble of formalities and rituals - always under pressure not to disappoint the expectations of the extended family. He is able to escape the confines of the village with his childhood friend Balya, with whom he finds some peace and tenderness in secret moments. But then the mourning period ends and Anand has to face the question of whether his relationship with Balya has a future.

Background:

In "Cactus Fruits", director Rohan Parashuram Kanawade uses atmospheric, emotional images to tell the story of his own experiences as a queer person in rural India: the loss of his father and the impossibility of mourning when you have to hide parts of your own identity. "Cactus Fruits" is a wistful, quietly optimistic film about the glimmers of hope that guide the way out of the fog of grief. At the Sundance Film Festival - where no film in the Marathi language had ever been shown before - it was awarded Best Foreign Feature Film in 2025.

Funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of NRW and the Interkultur Ruhr 2025 development fund.