Flickering Lights

In Tora, an Indian village on the border with Myanmar, the rhythm of life is determined by daylight and darkness. Time seems to stand still: people still cook on wood fires, even indoors, and there is no running water. When night falls though, some flashlights appear, and at one point a solar panel is even installed.

The filmmakers spend a lot of time with the villagers, who are disarmingly uninhibited, partly because they are not used to cameras or videos. Sparse news of the outside world arrives only via transistor radios. An elderly resident dreams of sovereignty for his people. An enterprising mother with a small shop would like to sell ice cream to pay boarding school fees for her four children, and she is saving for a fridge.

As it happens, the village is on the verge of change: it seems that electricity is finally on its way. Previous attempts failed, and now, too, the construction work on the infrastructure is going painfully slowly. Will electricity arrive this time? And will it bring the close-knit community the progress it is hoping for?