Synopsis
A Muslim fundamentalist in New York kidnaps a liberal Muslim scholar with intent to kill. A closeted lesbian in New Delhi kidnaps her activist bisexual lover with intent to marry. The resulting torture and violence evokes a brutal struggle of identities against unfreedom.
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Cast
- Victor BanerjeeFareed Rahmani
- Adil HussainDevraj Singh
- Bhanu UdayHussain
- Preeti GuptaLeela Singh
- Bhavani LeeSakhi Taylor
- Ankur VikalNajeeb
- Seema RahmaniChandra
- Samrat ChakrabartiAnees
- Danae NasonJana
- Andrew PlatnerMitch
Recommendations
- 50
The A.V. Club
Raj Amit Kumar’s film, which was banned by the country’s national censor board, is an intentional act of cultural and political provocation, and goes about its task as relentlessly as possible. - 40
New York Daily News
Director Raj Amit Kumar's bold but ultimately muddled attempt to address extremism and intolerance. - 30
Village Voice
Though it starts off as a cautiously optimistic conversion narrative, the pseudo-progressive, banned-in-India LGBT drama Unfreedom quickly devolves into an absurdly pessimistic provocation. - 30
Los Angeles Times
In writer-director Raj Amit Kumar's heavy-handed political theater, characters are little more than avatars of opposing cultural currents. - 30
The New York Times
Unspooling with an angry intensity and without a single sympathetic character, “Unfreedom” (originally titled “Blemished Light”) is a hard-line thriller derailed by messy editing and narrative silliness. - 25
New York Post
The awkwardly titled Unfreedom clearly waves the flag for acceptance and nonviolence — but it would be more effective if it invested as much in some cinematic nuance. - 25
RogerEbert.com
The movie ventures into the realm of pure grindhouse sadism. It’s borderline reprehensible, in spite of Kumar’s intentions. - 12
Slant Magazine
The film's troubled aesthetics are exacerbated by a screenplay that contains the trappings of amateur toil, including dialogue that harps on innocuous moments and trifling exposition.
