A Death in the Gunj
Konkona Sen Sharma
India.  2016.  110 min.
Cast:   Gulshan Devaiah, Kalki Koechlin, Vikram Massey.

It’s the story of a family reunion for seven days and its interpersonal dynamics. In 1979 a wealthy family comes to their holiday home in the Anglo-Indian city of McCluskiegunj to spend a week of relaxation, games, sun and joy. There are several generations of people who live together and, inevitably, tensions and conflicts arise, the worst part of which for Shutu, a shy student whose disdain and superiority make his personality crumble. This story has no moral or philosophical purpose, but tries to show a mosaic of characters, a patch of real life.

KONKONA  SEN  SHARMA

Konkona Sen Sharma was born in New Delhi in 1979 and she’s an award winning actress from India. A death in the Gunj is her first feature film as a writer and director. She is the daughter of the award-winning filmmaker Aparna Sen and granddaughter of Chidananda Dasgupta, a film historian, critic and co-founder of the Calcutta Film Society along with Satyajit Ray. She began her career as an actress at the age of four, Konkona has performed in more than 40 hindi, bengali and english films. She has received two National Awards and several industry awards.
The film’s world premiere took place at the 21th Toronto International Film Festival and at the 21th Busan International Film Festival in 2016. It was chosen as the opening film for the 18th Mumbai Film Festival, where it was screened in October 2016 and where director Konkona Sensharma received the “MasterCard for Best Female Filmmaker India 2016”.