Our Share of Sand
English
After years apart, 12 year-old Maya returns to India with her mother to reunite with her father - a sandmining business man. Immersed in a world where labour, legacy and extraction collide, she forms a fragile bond with Kiran, a young worker. After a tragic event, a police investigation turns Maya into a key witness, with her father relying on her to absolve him. Torn between loyalty and a growing unease she cannot name, Maya begins searching for the truth. As her mother quietly unravels, Maya uncovers a pattern of silence, exploitation and repeated harm forcing her to confront her father's deception and the family's complicity she must choose to break.
| Cast: | Maya Mehta, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Ellora Torchia, Krish Raj More, Ravi Patel, Jyoti Dogra, |
|---|---|
| Director: | Shalini Adnani |
| Writer: | Shalini Adnani |
| Editor: | Anna Meller |
| Camera: | Adric Watson |
All Guild Reviews of "Our Share of Sand"
A Moral Reckoning Looms in Shalini Adnani’s Taut Debut
Venice Film Festival 2026 | Premiering in Critics’ Week, the drama on class privilege covers up a familiar narrative with clear-eyed direction.
Maya (Maya Mehta) was never supposed to be privy to the risky work over which her industrialist father Rohan (Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub) presides. He has designed his well-settled life and sand mining work, involving day-labourers, to be separated by an inveterate distance. This breeds indifference, a stiffening up against the real dangers and worries of those having to take the plunge. In Shalini Adnani’s debut feature, Our Share of Sand, the 12-year-old British-Asian Maya returns with her mother Priti (Ellora Torchia) to stay with her father in India. Having been in the UK for years, the occasion marks Maya’s first encounter with her roots. However, it brings her up distressingly close against the deep-entrenched class inequality and densely hierarchical negotiations Indian life is riven with.
Latest Reviews
