Elephants in the Fog

Pirati is the matriarch of her village’s Kinnar community, a spiritual group of third-gender people whose blessings are historically considered sacred. Though the Kinnar must adhere to a strict vow of chastity and a commitment to protecting their own, Pirati secretly dreams of running away to Delhi with the man she loves and is torn between her heart’s desires and her concern for her daughters. When the newest initiate—the charmingly rebellious Apsara—disappears into the forest, Pirati must fight to find the young woman, confronting the rules of her community and the village’s mounting indifference and animosity.

Tradition clashes against modernity in Abinash Bikram Shah’s delicately rendered portrait of a spiritual community that defies Western notions around gender and sexuality. Set amid the wild and verdant forests surrounding a village being continually shaped by contemporary notions of prejudice, Elephants in the Fog is an intimate examination of chosen family, motherhood, and sacrifice in the name of liberation.