The Lunchbox directed by Shubh Gaharwar.

Director statement

Based on a true experience I had when I was younger, ‘The Lunchbox’ takes this seed of inspiration and sees how these characters overcome, one of a son who doesn’t want anything to do with his culture, and one of a mother who wants to connect with her son.

Whenever assimilation is brought up, it’s almost always accusatory. The unjust narrative that immigrants aren’t trying hard enough to adapt, distorts the fact of how difficult it is for immigrant families to just exist, when the notion of “their self” and their identities are constantly being attacked from a culture unfamiliar to them.

‘The Lunchbox’ shows a sort of loss-of-innocence, as this is the first seed of doubt and uncertainty about his identity and who he is, and somehting that his family around him must also be a part of, because to be an immigrant is to create new parts of your identity, not to lose them behind.