Cities of Sleep

Followed by discussion with Shekhar Deshpande moderated by curator Priyadarshini Shanker

Dir. Shaunak Sen. 2016, 74 mins. Digital projection. In Hindi with English subtitles. In Delhi, just securing a safe sleeping spot can become a question of life and death for many people. Cities of Sleep follows two characters whose lives are about to be threatened by Delhi’s dangerous winter rains. Shakeel, a homeless man who improvises his sleeping arrangement every night, searches for a secure place to rest, coming into contact with Delhi’s famous “sleep mafia.” And Ranjeet, who runs the “sleep-cinema” community on the banks of the river Yamuna, where hundreds of homeless come to sleep in shanty cinemas for a nominal fee, must come up with a plan before the river floods.

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