A Season Outside

“In 1947, Kanwar's family had to flee from the Punjab region which is cut was divided in two by Pakistan and India. His return to the state’s
frontier, which has been under dispute for 50 years, is accompanied by an off-screen voice that formulates thoughts and questions. These revolve around the vision of a non-violent society and are often contrasted, almost cynically, by images depicting places of socially accepted and statesanctioned violence: houses that are like prisons for women, cockfights in a marketplace, the isolated housings for refugees. Why are we “we” and they the “others”? The border: a line called the border, and the disturbing rituals that the state uses to position itself in the limelight here. Amar Kanwar wants to free himself from his terrible family story.” (Brigitte Schulze, epd Film 11/98)