Hello Arsi

A man and a woman lay side by side in bed. Who are they and how do they know each other? There is no one clear answer and that’s what makes this story interesting. "Hello Arsi" is a movie that shouldn’t work and yet it does. Most of the action takes place in a car, that same man and woman are driving and talking. Talking about everything and nothing. They tell each other stories about themselves and stories of a time when that road they are currently driving on didn’t even exist. All of us are a collection of untold stories. However it gets a lot more complicated when they start talking about their feelings. "Hello Arsi" is a fascinating and tender contemplation on what it means to be a woman, the nature of relationships, and life in general. Filmed in Odia language, this is writer-director Sambit Mohanty’s first and unfortunately also last film (he died suddenly during post-production in 2017). You can sense a longing here for a simpler time and a yearning to find each other in a situation where advancements in technology have isolated us more and more. We often hear the sounds of nature throughout this movie, but we rarely see any nature. Where once was a forest, now stands a factory and rows upon rows of new roads. Liisi Rohumäe