SULTANA’S DREAM

The colors and cultures of India are entrancingly on display in this animated neo-folk fable that fantasizes Ladyland, a safe place for women where gender roles are reversed, men are segregated and women are equal and free to order the world in peace and harmony.  This was the feminist vision of Bengali activist writer Rokeya Hussain in 1905, brought to life by Spanish filmmaker Herguera utilizing media and techniques including paper cutouts, puppet animation, sumptuous layered watercolor painting, and drawn geometric patterns reminiscent of mehndi henna tattoos.  Adventurous heroine Ines travels to India in search of her roots, where she flees an overbearing suitor and sees the world with new eyes through her encounters with other women.