Under the starry sky, two childhood friends realize that they want to share their future together. From the ashes of a funeral pyre, this debut feature from India resurrects an unspoken love with delicate and sensuous images.
A sensual, tender queer romance… Cactus Pears sees love grow from death… It’s rolling rhythm offers a delightfully sweet love story rendered with the heat of the heart.
Cactus Pears 2025
Sabar bonda
Cactus Pears was the first Indian film to win the prestigious World Cinema Dramatic Competition at Sundance. Rohan Parashuram Kanawade’s film centers on Anand, an unmarried thirtysomething living in Mumbai with his parents. Upon his beloved father’s death, he travels with his mother to inland Maharashtra, to mourn with the rest of the family. In this rural setting, and amidst the strict rituals of the funeral, Anand meets his childhood friend Balya. Under a vaulting, starry sky or the rustling branches of a tree, their fond memories of the past lead them to realize that they want to bravely share their future together.
Shot with meticulous precision and written with fitting genuineness, Cactus Pears offers a fascinating stylistic approach. The chapter detailing the funeral ritual is a deep immersion in specific cultural practices, yet it also provides Kanawade with the pretext to explore family dynamics. He does so with documentary-like observation while occasionally making graceful detours, such as the touching story behind Anand’s parent’s marriage. When the focus shifts to the discovery of mutual feelings between Anand and Balya, the mise en scene acquires a delicately sensuous panache that is quite unseen in Indian cinema, making Cactus Pears a deeply affecting, memorable debut. — Paolo Bertolin