Ambarien Alqadar | India, United Kingdom, United States | 2026 | 16 mins. | Hindi, Urdu | Asia Premiere | Filmmaker attending
Eighteen-year-old Layla lives in a working-class New Delhi neighborhood bounded by restrictions. When she meets Nasrine, a rebellious young woman at her mother’s beauty salon, Layla encounters desire and possibility, and steps out to her first-ever dance party. But when she is shamed for being “stray,” Layla’s rebellion takes on a magical turn.
Ambarien Alqadar
Ambarien Alqadar is a Chicago-based writer-director from New Delhi exploring girlhood, memory, and home. A Fulbright-Nehru Fellow with an MFA from Temple University, she teaches at DePaul University. Her feature project Nisa was selected for Torino Features Lab Next 2026 and won the Emerging Voice in Indian Cinema Award.
Producer: Ranjan Singh, Anurag Kashyap, Neeraj Churi, Ambarien Alqadar
Writer: Ambarien Alqadar
Cinematographer: Prateek Pamecha
Editor: Joydip Das
Sound: Vidhaat Raman
Music: Michel Mezher
Cast: Nimisha Nair, Sarah Hashmi
