By Joanne Sargent
Contributor
As the poster says: “it’ll move you to tears.”
In adapting her own bestselling (5 million copies worldwide) novel, The Braid writer-director Laetitia Colombani weaves together three stories of women on three continents. Widely separated by social class, they are each forced into making tough, life-changing decisions for the betterment of their families.
In India, Smita is an Untouchable whose job is to pick up and dispose of human waste. They live in extreme poverty; she struggles to feed her husband and young daughter Lalita. She dreams of an education for Lalita, to save her from the same fate as her, and considers a torturous journey to free the girl, but her husband is against it for fear they’ll be tortured or killed.
In Italy, Giulia works in the human hair wig factory owned by her father. When he suffers a terrible accident, Giulia discovers her father is in deep debt and the family may lose everything. She jumps into action to keep the business and her family afloat, with her non-mother-approved lover, a Sikh man.
In Montreal, Sarah is an attorney and single mother of three children. Just as she expects a promotion she’s been waiting for, she receives a cancer diagnosis and her plans for the future come crashing down. Her personal and professional life is rocked yet she feels she must hide her diagnosis from her children and her boss.
Colombani cuts between these three determined women, where their stories intersect and what unites them, as they overcome every manner of obstacle to keep life moving forward. It’s about the invisible connection among women whose everyday heroism goes unseen.
With some subtitles, The Braid plays at 5 p.m. on Saturday, April 13 at the Classic.
Read more: Dune II generates an all-in intensity for an all-in movie spectacle