Maitri, a young aspiring travel blogger who shares a home with her mother in their Indian apartment block, is stuck. She is struggling to find an audience for her travel-centric YouTube channel, her mother disapproves of her career path, and she’s still working through unresolved grief after the loss of her father. Thinking it will make good content, Maitri tags along with her mother and their neighbors, trusted landlord Rajesh and his wife, to a temple during the Navratri festival. When Maitri is groped by Rajesh on the way to the festival, she feels shocked, furious and lonely and impulsively decides to take retributive steps, setting off a chain of events that rocks her tight-knight community.

Impressively helmed by multi hyphenate writer-producer-director-star Uttera Singh, Pinch is at once a deeply engrossing morality play, enraging social critique and darkly comic, tension-filled drama. With a rhythmic editing style and wonderful performances from the ensemble cast, Pinch is a vibrantly shot, beautifully plotted exploration of guilt, trauma and the strength it takes to stand up to power.—Jason Gutierrez

Uttera Singh