The Hollywood Reporter can debut the first clip from Our Share of Sand, the debut feature from writer-director Shalini Adnani, ahead of its world premiere in Critics’ Week at the Venice Film Festival.
The 95-minute drama, set against India’s sand mining crisis, follows 12-year-old Maya (newcomer Maya Mehta) as she returns to India with her mother to reunite with her estranged father, a sand mining businessman, and forms a bond with Kiran, a young worker.
After an accident, a police investigation turns Maya into a key witness, with her father relying on her to absolve him. As her mother unravels, Maya uncovers a pattern of silence and exploitation that leads her to confront her father’s deception and her family’s complicity.
Adnani has said the title is rooted in the sand mining crisis in India, where extraction of river sand has accelerated erosion and contributed to flooding. “Sand, in this world, is currency — and many people are unaware that we are running out of it, and that its extraction is causing land erosion worldwide,” she writes in the film’s production notes.
In the clip, Maya questions her father’s view of what holds their family together. “We are family. We are connected by blood,” he tells her. “Is that what you think connects us?” she replies, before naming what she believes actually binds them: “The house, money.”
Mehta, making her screen debut, stars alongside Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub (Article 15, Jogi, Raanjhanaa) as Rohan and Ellora Torchia (Midsommar, Ali & Ava, House of the Dragon) as Priti, with Krish Raj More as Kiran, Ravi Patil as Dadya and Jyoti Dogra as Art.
Adnani is a Chilean-born, Indian-origin writer-director based in London. Her short film White Ant premiered at Sundance, was longlisted for a BIFA, won Best UK Short at Raindance in 2023 and was acquired by Canal+. She is a London Film School and Berlinale Talents alumna.
Our Share of Sand is produced by Sara Bonakdar for Fifth Mirror Pictures, with Alan McAlex, Balthazar de Ganay, Giorgos Karnavas and Michael Graf also producing. Developed with Film4 and the BFI, the UK-Greek co-production was shot in India, co-produced with Karnavas’ Heretic and made in association with McAlex’s Suitable Pictures (Santosh, Sister Midnight). Global Constellation is handling international sales.
Check out the clip of Our Share of Sand below.
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