The investigation into two kidnapped boys becomes increasingly personal for the detective assigned to the case in “Pooja, Sir”, a spare, affecting thriller. Inspired by the protests orchestrated in 2015 in Nepal by disenfranchised ethnic minority community the Madhesi, director Deepak Rauniyar has crafted a film powered by a sense of outrage and sorrow at a nation riven by sexism and bigotry. The story’s inherently emotional underpinnings are made more overt by the casting of Rauniyar’s wife – actress, producer, co-writer and frequent collaborator Asha Magrati – who plays the resolute cop determined to find these missing children, even as she navigates a society disinclined to help her.

Tim Grierson, Screen International