Le rêve de la sultane

Winner of the Basque film award at the 2023 San Sebastian Festival, and nominated for the Goya for best animated film, it is a fascinating but disjointed film that narrates the initial journey of a film director, presumably the director herself, inspired by the feminist story of the same name written in India in 1905 by Rokeya Hossain. Set in Isabel Herguera's brilliant modern anime, it centers on a young filmmaker, Inés: Miren Arrieta, who returns from India to Spain to seek career advice from her wheelchair-bound oceanographer mother, who is a fountain of wisdom. This continues the search for Ladyland, in India, the utopian land of women that the story tells of, a place where they hold power against the usual governance of men.

This is a colorful and strange animated film about a young girl named Inés who sets out on a journey of discovery across India in search of Ladyland, the utopian land of women. It is an avant-garde fable from 1905 by a pioneering Bengali feminist writer, Rokeya Hussein, who imagines a utopian kingdom of Ladyland. Here, women call the shots in creating a harmonious society where they are educated and given considerable agency while the men are locked up. The Sultana's Dream (2023) develops some current themes of politics, voyages of discovery, personal reflection, religious freedom, feminism and the environment. There is a certain satire that is witty enough, but slow paced, and in which Herguera offers subtle entertainment criticizing a male-dominated society that still exists in India nowadays and as Inés embarks on a peripatetic odyssey to make hopes and dreams come true. This disjointed film is made up of a medley of images that, although beautiful, do not make much sense, the story is lost in disquisitions and supposedly interesting ideas, but all of them unconnected and without following a common criterion. The result is a somewhat confusing and frankly tiresome film, although visually it is a captivating gem, full of color and dazzling animation. This is not a film for all audiences, but is aimed at open-minded people, for adults with a certain capacity for thinking and also in a position to be extremely bored.

The film was unevenly directed by Isabel Herguera. The story turns out to be mediocre, but the naive drawings are really wonderful. It obtained several nominations and awards, including: Círculo de Escritores de Cine Awards, Spain 2024 Nominated for the CEC Award for Best Animated Film Isabel Herguera. Hamburg Film Festival, Fabian Driehorst (Producer), Vanessa Ciszewski, nominated for the 2023 Art Cinema Award, for best feature film. Goya Awards Chelo Loureiro Nominated Goya 2024 Best Animated Film Isabel Herguera (producer)Chelo Loureiro (executive producer) Mariano Baratech (producer) Iván Miñambres (producer) Fabian Driehorst (executive producer), Goya Nominated 2024 Best Animated Film. São Paulo International Film Festival 2023 Nominated New Directors Competition Best Fiction Isabel Herguera (director). Leeds International Film Festival 2023 Nominated Best New Director Isabel Herguera. Feroz Awards, 2024 Nominated Feroz Arrebato Fiction Award Isabel Herguera. José María Forqué Awards El Sueño de la Sultana 2023 Nominated for the José María Forqué Award for Best Animated Film.

What a stunning achievement! How much love has gone into this! Can't wait to see it!

The visuals feel like a fever dream in Calcutta, beautiful and heavy and lush with detail. There's so much to feel and unpack within the trailer itself, I can't imagine how much more is to come with the film. The water, the movements, the art style, I'm so thrilled to see animation with such detailed Indian folk art, it's a feat of great effort and the result is stunning. I would really like to applaud the team and will be sharing this trailer with everyone I can!

My best wishes to Sultana's Dream, thank you!

Sultana's Dream could well have been a live action film. Having said that, the animation that it displays is imaginative, commendable, and creates a world of its own. But while the animation has its moments of glory, on the whole, as a film, it lacks a cohevise narrative to keep you engaged throughout. Visual brilliance can only keep you up until a point. In the end, it is the story that matters.

The film ends up resorting to the typical format of arthouse cinema with a lady in search of something, more particularly in foreign land. This time, it is India. Hailing from India, I can certainly say that the India that it represents is believable, though certainly not beautiful. The problem is if audiences across the globe take this image of India as its integral identity! India being such a culturally diverse country - it is practically impossible for any foreign film to depict the complete picture of the country - be it Slumdog Millionaire or Life of Pi.

As its central theme, the film explores the issue of women not feeling safe in a male-dominated society. Thankfully, this fact is not just restricted to India in the film but is depicted as a universal problem. But the protagonist suffers from no past wound as such to have such a heavy character conflict. Also, beyond this core theme, the film also meanders into multiple correlated themes like gender inequality, identity crisis and living your own dreams. Amidst all this, the movie gets convoluted and the narrative loses complete semblance and also its audience.

For all the meticulous efforts put into making this visual spectacle, a more palatable plotline would have rewarded it with a wider global audience than being restricted to merely a festival circuit!