Screening at Cinema Nova, Nidheya Suresh's 'The Rose Garden' explores mental health and familial bonds through a South Asian lens.
How long does it take to rebuild family bonds that have ruptured? Nidhya Suresh’s ‘The Rose Garden’ explores this question in the form of a simple but resonant two-hander short film.
The film follows Lisa and Damini, two estranged Indian-American sisters, who are thrust together when their parents die in a tragic accident. The sisters, played by Ria Patel and Kankana Chakraborty, are forced to confront their grief and reconcile the emotional rift in their relationship.
Despite the tight runtime, ‘The Rose Garden’ achieves an absorbing and affecting narrative, owing to deep characterisation and clean cinematography, leaving you enough space to grieve and breathe with the characters. The turbulent sisterly dynamic is accurately rendered and portrayed with synergy by the two leads, the characters skilfully moving from hurling death threats to comforting each other.
The film’s cathartic ending left a strong impression on the mostly young, second generation South Asian Australian audience at its’ Melbourne screening, and a guided meditation from Ria Patel left them grounded and well placed for a panel discussion on South Asian mental health.
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