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In 2019, protests broke out after the Indian government enacted the Citizenship Amendment Act, which overtly discriminates against Muslims. Nausheen Khan follows the women at the forefront of the resistance.

Synopsis

As protests spring up across India against the Citizenship Amendment Act, a group of intergenerational, multi-faith women gather at Shaheen Bagh, a Muslim neighborhood in Delhi, to form a non-violent sit-in that grows into a nationwide movement. It soon faces both institutional and societal repression. Drawing on her identity as a Muslim woman, the filmmaker captures this movement, whilst questioning current notions of belonging, nationalism, and identity in India.

Media Gallery

Blurry shot of a crowd of people seen from above, the Indian flag is waving
close-up of older indian lady, raising her finger above her face
shot of crowd of women with headscaves at a protest
scene of a protest, shot from above

“Land of My Dreams encapsulates so much that is good in India, and what is being lost. In a celebration of diversity, various communities came together to peacefully protest a patently discriminatory law. And in crushing the protest with hate, violence, and arrests, the authorities snatched from the young their right to dissent in a democracy.”  

- Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy director, Asia Division, Human Rights Watch

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Credits

Nausheen Khan

Director
Women with long brown hair and a green t-shirt looks at the camera, smiling. She is holding a digital camera.

Nausheen (she/her) is an independent filmmaker working on gender perspectives amid conflict and political unrest in contemporary times. Land of My Dreams is her first self-financed feature-length documentary film. It won Best Long Documentary at the International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala, in 2023, and the Citizens' Prize at the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, in 2023.