Zindagi Dobara (Life, Again)

Zindagi Dobara is a short narrative film centering a young South Asian teen who is forced to live with her distant grandmother she's never met or heard of before. The two must decide whether to embark on a lifelong journey to coexist and perhaps one day, love one another.

  • Amritpal Kaur
    Writer
    Udhaare Supne (Borrowed Dreams)
  • Amandeep Kaur
    Writer
    Udhaare Supne (Borrowed Dreams)
  • Project Type:
    Student, Short Script
  • Genres:
    Drama, LGBTQ+, Coming of Age
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • First-time Screenwriter:
    No
  • Student Project:
    Yes - University of California Santa Cruz
Writer Biography - Amritpal Kaur, Amandeep Kaur

Amritpal Kaur (Amrit) is an undocumented, disabled, queer South Asian storyteller and humxn rights advocate. She immigrated from Punjab, India to Los Angeles in 2000, just shy of the 9/11 attacks and xenophobia that would follow many Middle Eastern & South Asian communities. Amrit is enthusiastic about overthrowing the patriarchy, smashing white supremacy, and building bridges with BIPOC through her theater and filmmaking work. She is the founder of Brown Girl Joy alongside her sisters, Jazz and Amani Kaur, which is dedicated to exploring the intersections of being beautiful, brown & black humxn beings in a time when underserved communities are gaslit and seen as “resilient” while battling Amerikkkan systemic racism.

Add Writer Biography
Writer Statement

This film is my gift to my grandmother. The story itself is inspired by my own grandmother’s passing from ovarian cancer in March 2018. I never saw my grandmother in the flesh after I had left India as a 3-year-old and we became quite distant in the 19 years that followed before her departure. I could never come out to her as a queer femme and I kept thinking about all the stories and history that were left unspoken and scattered into the Earth alongside her ashes. Hopefully, this story transcends its physical nature and into the heavens for her.

Zindagi Dobara (Life Again) truly means these characters will get a second chance at living life and hopefully surviving. The grandmother (Dilreet) and granddaughter (Mahi) experience an aching to discover the truth about who they are instead of being confined within traditional South Asian gender roles. Together they begin a lifelong journey of unlearning many taboos in their culture and religion. Dilreet did get shunned from her family and community, but may have an opportunity at healing and breaking the lineage of trauma through the bond with her granddaughter.
Surviving such life experiences and traumas is something many South Asian LGBTQ+ folks don't often get the privilege to live through. We often don't get the "Happily Ever After" endings. As a queer woman of color and filmmaker, I really hope people of all backgrounds, beliefs, and journeys empathize with Mahi and Dilreet through this film, without us listing the heartbreaking statistics of the harm and discrimination against these specific communities.

The content definitely will be emotionally heavy but there will be so much beauty in the Punjabi and South Asian themed aesthetics that will weave a vivid film for our communities!