Shalini Adnani’s ‘Our Share of Sand’: Inside the Indian sand-mining story heading to Venice

Chilean-Indian filmmaker Shalini Adnani’s Our Share of Sand enters the 41st Venice International Critics’ Week as one of seven debut features competing in the secstion. The film, which has its world premiere on September 4, follows 12-year-old Maya as she returns to rural India with her mother and reconnects with her estranged father, a sand-mining businessman whose operation employs young workers in hazardous conditions. An accident involving Maya’s friend and family help, Kiran, turns her into a witness to the family’s carefully maintained version of events.

Born in Chile to a Sindhi Indian family and now based in London, Shalini grew up moving between two cultures that gave her very different but equally intimate ideas of home. Her family’s roots brought her repeatedly to India, where she divided her time between Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Chennai, while Chile remained the other place that shaped her sense of belonging.