In Her Time
2026 · 4m · India
Directed by Deepayan Purkait
Genres: animation, drama, musical
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tender
On a cold winter far from home, Maya chances upon a long-forgotten photo diary and is carried back to her family home on a roller-coaster ride of memories. An 'animated musical' from Deepayan Purkait about alienation, separation, longing and mental health among those who leave home.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
An animated musical about nostalgia and mental health sounds like the kind of thing festivals program to feel thoughtful—but Purkait's choosing to let memory *move* like a physical force, not a metaphor, is genuinely disorienting in a way that matters.
There's a deliberate lineage here: the structuring of memory through form rather than narration echoes everything from *Carnival of Souls* to contemporary essay animation, and the decision to marry that to the musical genre suggests a filmmaker aware of what each tradition carries.
What makes this sing is the editing rhythm—the way Purkait cuts between photograph and animation, between stillness and movement, to create momentum from static source material; that single structural choice transforms what could be a greeting-card meditation into something that actually *feels* like remembering.
Reviews
What is the film about? In the hush of a cold winter, at some distant country far from home… Maya, chances upon a long forgotten photo diary and it takes her on a journey through time back to her family home in a roller coaster ride of memories.