Sister Midnight

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Sister Midnight
Sister Midnight.jpg
UK theatrical release poster
Directed by Karan Kandhari
Written byKaran Kandhari
Produced by
  • Alastair Clark
  • Anna Griffin
Starring
CinematographySverre Sørdal
Edited byNapoleon Stratogiannakis
Music by Paul Banks
Production
companies
  • Film4
  • BFI
  • Wellington Films
  • Griffin Pictures
Distributed by Altitude Film Distribution (UK)
Release date
  • 19 May 2024 (2024-05-19)(Cannes)
30 May 2025 (India)
Running time
110 minutes
Countries
  • United Kingdom
  • Sweden
  • India
LanguageHindi
Box office$316,036 [1] [2]

Sister Midnight is a 2024 black comedy film directed and written by Karan Kandhari in his directorial debut. The film stars Radhika Apte as a woman who is dragged into an unhappy arranged marriage and experiences chaotic events.

Contents

The film had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival during its Directors' Fortnight section on 19 May 2024. It was nominated at the 78th BAFTA Awards for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer. [3] [4] The film was released theatrically in India on 30 May 2025. [5]

Premise

A woman is transformed into a disturbing and ruthless figure after entering an arranged marriage. [6] [7]

Cast

Production

In 2022, the project received a £1.03 million production grant from the British Film Institute. [8] The film was shot on Kodak and Panavision. [9]

Filming

Filming took place almost entirely on location in Mumbai between February and April 2023, including slum exteriors, a purpose-built wooden shack for interior scenes, and real public spaces such as train stations and Marine Drive. A brief sequence featuring a samurai warrior was shot in Scotland. [10]

Release

Sister Midnight had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, during the Directors' Fortnight section, on 19 May 2024. [11] Prior to, sales company Protagonist Pictures boarded the film's worldwide sales. [12] In July 2024, Altitude Film Distribution secured the film's distribution rights in the United Kingdom. [13] In October 2024, Magnet Releasing acquired the U.S. distribution rights to the film. [14] The film was released theatrically in India on 30 May 2025. [15]

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 96% of 55 critics' reviews are positive. The film has been noted for its unique narrative and striking visual style, marking a significant contribution to Hindi-language independent cinema.

Accolades

AwardDate of ceremonyCategoryRecipient(s)ResultRef.
Cannes Film Festival 25 May 2024 Caméra d'Or Karan Kandhari Nominated [16]
Fantastic Fest 24 September 2024 Next Wave – Best FeatureWon [17]
Hawaii International Film Festival 12 October 2024 NETPAC Award Won [18]
Zurich Film Festival 13 October 2024Golden Eye AwardNominated [19]
British Independent Film Awards 8 December 2024 Best Lead Performance Radhika Apte Nominated [20]
Best Music SupervisionKle SavidgeNominated
Douglas Hickox Award (Best Debut Director) Karan KandhariNominated
Best Debut Screenwriter Nominated
British Academy Film Awards 16 February 2025 Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer Nominated [21]

References

  1. ↑ "Sister Midnight (2025)". Box Office Mojo . IMDb . Retrieved 18 July 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. ↑ Midnight-(2025) "Sister Midnight (2025) – Financial Information". The Numbers . Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved 18 July 2025.{{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. ↑ "BAFTA Awards 2025: Sandhya Suri's Santosh, Karan Kandhari's Sister Midnight nominated alongside Dev Patel's Monkey Man". Hindustan Times . Retrieved 15 January 2025.
  4. ↑ "Films by Indian-origin filmmakers earn top nods at BAFTA Awards 2025". Asia News Network . Retrieved 17 January 2025.
  5. ↑ "Radhika Apte embraces risk with Sister Midnight, hopes film releases uncut in India". India Today. 30 May 2025. Retrieved 2 June 2025.
  6. ↑ Ide, Wendy (16 March 2025). "Sister Midnight review – deliciously macabre Mumbai marriage-gone-wrong black comedy. Uma, a young woman from rural India, is married off to Gopal, a quiet, small-built man who works in a perfumery in Mumbai. The marriage is arranged and Uma arrives in the chaotic metropolis to begin her new life. The couple lives in a tiny, claustrophobic chawl-like room, surrounded by noisy neighbors, intrusive relatives, and a world Uma is unfamiliar with. From the start, it's clear that Gopal and Uma are mismatched. Gopal is cold, awkward, and indifferent toward Uma, avoiding physical intimacy and offering no emotional warmth. He spends most of his time working or avoiding confrontation. Uma, meanwhile, is observant and silently rebellious. She cooks, cleans, and follows the expected domestic routine, but with a palpable sense of detachment and growing disillusionment. The silence between them is heavy and constant. Shortly after her arrival, the couple attends a family wedding, where Gopal shows signs of social discomfort. Uma stands out — she's confident, striking, and doesn't behave like a typical submissive bride. At the wedding, she is bitten by a mosquito on her arm — an event treated as a minor nuisance, but it becomes the turning point of the film. In the following days, Uma begins to feel strange. She starts sweating profusely, twitching, and experiencing hallucinations. Her body seems to undergo subtle changes. Her appetite disappears, and she becomes increasingly disturbed by the smell of meat and cooked food. Instead, she's drawn to raw, animalistic impulses. At one point, she kills and eats a pigeon — an act portrayed with surreal, hallucinatory intensity. This behavior continues to escalate. Meanwhile, Gopal notices her erratic behavior but responds with apathy and condescension. He becomes suspicious, even scared, but chooses to ignore her transformation. He sleeps on the floor, avoids touching her, and increasingly treats her like an inconvenient burden. As the illness deepens, Uma becomes nocturnal. She wanders the city at night, discovering Mumbai in bizarre and surreal forms — alleys lit in garish neon, strange animal carcasses hanging from hooks, and animated hallucinations of zombie goats, snakes, and dead rats mocking her. These sequences are shot with psychedelic colors, jagged edits, and unnerving sound design. She gets a night job at a mall-like cleaning company, where she vacuums floors and interacts minimally with others. Her co-worker, another woman in a similar domestic bind, warns her about the "bad things in the blood." Uma finds solace in this eerie nighttime world, slowly detaching herself from her identity as a wife. At home, she's now fully unhinged. She starts chewing on goat heads, staring blankly at the ceiling, and exhibiting violent impulses. Her hair begins to fall out. In one particularly jarring scene, she attempts to bite Gopal in bed, prompting him to lock her in the room while he seeks help from a local spiritual healer. A neighborhood "baba" is summoned to exorcise her of "evil spirits." He conducts a ritualistic cleansing that involves burning incense, chanting, and trying to force-feed her turmeric. Uma initially complies but suddenly vomits black sludge onto the floor. The baba calls her possessed, and Gopal, embarrassed by the scandal, isolates her further. Her hallucinations intensify. The apartment begins to feel like a prison. In a dreamlike sequence, Uma sees multiple versions of herself in bridal sarees, walking through smoke-filled corridors, laughing maniacally. She sees her mother, her past, and her unrealized desires — it's a montage of all the identities she's been forced to bury. At this point, Uma fully transforms into "Sister Midnight" — a feral, primal version of herself. She puts on red lipstick, ties her hair up, and confronts Gopal for the first time with burning rage. In a climactic outburst, she bites his neck and possibly kills him — though the film doesn't explicitly show his death. Instead, we cut to Uma walking alone through the streets, smeared with blood, whispering to herself in gibberish. She returns to the wedding hall from earlier in the film — now deserted and decayed. In the final act, she dances alone under flickering lights, dressed in a torn bridal lehenga. The goats, snakes, and mosquitoes from her hallucinations reappear, surrounding her in a surreal finale. Her laughter becomes guttural, ferocious — no longer human. The final shot is ambiguous. Uma stands atop a building at dawn, looking down at the city. The light begins to rise. Whether she jumps, flies, or simply walks away is left unresolved". the Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 21 March 2025.
  7. ↑ Bradshaw, Peter (12 March 2025). "Sister Midnight review – Mumbai-set comic horror finds the terror in arranged marriage". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 21 March 2025.
  8. ↑ Tabbara, Mona (28 December 2022). "The BFI's 10 biggest production awards of 2022". Screen Daily . Archived from the original on 26 May 2024. Retrieved 14 December 2024.
  9. ↑ "Sverre Sørdal, FNF, talks about the shooting of "Sister Midnight", by Karan Kandhari". French Society of Cinematographers . 22 May 2024. Retrieved 14 December 2024.
  10. ↑ "Sister Midnight: A Contemporary Indian Fable Shot on Kodak 16mm". Kodak. 11 June 2024. Retrieved 22 July 2025.
  11. ↑ Roxborough, Scott (16 April 2024). "Cannes Directors' Fortnight Lineup Unveiled". The Hollywood Reporter . Archived from the original on 16 July 2024. Retrieved 14 December 2024.
  12. ↑ Tabbara, Mona (22 April 2024). "Protagonist Pictures boards Cannes Directors' Fortnight title 'Sister Midnight'; unveils first look (exclusive)". Screen Daily. Archived from the original on 11 December 2024. Retrieved 14 December 2024.
  13. ↑ Tabbara, Mona (18 July 2024). "UK's Altitude adds 'Emmanuelle', 'Sister Midnight', 'I'm Still Here' to ramped-up distribution slate (exclusive)". Screen Daily. Retrieved 14 December 2024.
  14. ↑ Grobar, Matt (24 October 2024). "Magnet Releasing Takes U.S. Rights To Karan Kandhari's Cannes Directors' Fortnight Selection 'Sister Midnight'". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved 14 December 2024.
  15. ↑ "Radhika Apte embraces risk with Sister Midnight, hopes film releases uncut in India". India Today. 30 May 2025. Retrieved 2 June 2025.
  16. ↑ "The 2024 Caméra d'or: who are the contenders?". Cinéma de Demain. 8 May 2024. Archived from the original on 7 October 2024. Retrieved 14 December 2024.
  17. ↑ Taylor, Drew (24 September 2024). "Barry Keoghan's 'Bring Them Down' Wins Best Picture, Main Competition at Fantastic Fest | Exclusive". TheWrap . Retrieved 14 December 2024.
  18. ↑ Valcourt, Katrina (17 October 2024). "Local Filmmakers Win Big as HIFF44's Awards Are Announced". Honolulu . Retrieved 14 December 2024.
  19. ↑ Garner, Glenn (12 October 2024). "Zurich Film Festival 2024 Winners — Full List". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 14 December 2024.
  20. ↑ Dalton, Ben (5 November 2024). "'Kneecap', 'Love Lies Bleeding', 'The Outrun' lead Bifa 2024 nominations". Screen Daily. Archived from the original on 4 December 2024. Retrieved 14 December 2024.
  21. ↑ Fernandes, Shefali (15 January 2025). "BAFTA 2025: All We Imagine As Light Nominated For Best Foreign Film; Indian Films Monkey Man, Santosh, Sister Midnight Lead Nominations". Free Press Journal . Retrieved 15 January 2025.
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