“385 films over six days, between January 28 and February 3: for a film buff, the 14th edition of the Mumbai International Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation Films (MIFF), the largest South Asian festival of non-feature films, looks like an embarrassment of riches, a random assortment of diverse cinematic goodies. (…)
But if there’s only one film that you can manage to catch at MIFF, then make it My Name is Salt by Farida Pacha. On the salt pan workers of Kutch, it lays bare the rare vocation, their lonely, bleak yet rhythmic life and occupation, without explanatory narration, just using imagery. Stunningly shot, the film captures the workers toiling endlessly to extract salt for eight months of the year, until the salt pans get inundated by the monsoons and turn into a vast sea. All they then can do is wait for the next seasonal cycle to begin.”
Namrata Joshi