Acting Like a Thief
2005 · 15m · India
Directed by Kerim Friedman, Shashwati Talukdar
Genres: documentary, historical
Tones: contemplative, provocative
A short documentary on the Budhan Theatre of Chharanagar, Ahmedabad, where young actors from the Chhara community — branded a 'born criminal' tribe under British colonial law — use theatre to confront stigma and reclaim their identity. Opening with playwright Dakxin Bajrange recounting his arrest, the film moves through the lives of the troupe and their families.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Everyone expects a colonial-guilt redemption arc here, but Friedman and Talukdar refuse that comfort—the film stays messy, stays angry, and lets the Chhara speak without softening them into inspiration porn, which is the most subversive move this documentary could make.
A formally precise documentary that understands how to situate theatre activism within a lineage of postcolonial performance practice; the editing orchestrates testimony and archival weight with the restraint of someone who knows exactly what Fanon and Brecht were arguing about.
The decision to open with Dakxin's arrest—letting legal violence frame the entire subsequent act of reclamation—turns what could've been a standard community-theatre doc into something structurally unshakeable, and everything after moves with that one choice's gravity.