Based on real events, Bittersweet is an earnest examination of the plight of female sugar cane cutters in Beed, a region in the state of Maharashtra, India. With no toilet facilities available to the workers on the plantations, menstruating women are forced to take time off. They find themselves fined for missed days and — shockingly — pressured into having hysterectomies in order to improve their productivity. Direct and somewhat didactic in approach, the film labours its admittedly eye-opening themes at times, but the dilemma faced by Saguna, a college student forced by family debt to work as a cane cutter, is persuasively explored by actress Akshaya Gurav.
‘Bittersweet’: Busan Review
