Ashore is a meditation on belonging, space, and the quiet struggle for identity. On the shores of Puri in Eastern India, Lata, a young Odia woman stands before the vast sea, its boundless horizon a stark contrast to the spaces she will soon occupy. Under the thatched roof of her home, she rehearses answers in front of a mirror as her aunt quizzes her over the phone, practicing the right words for border control. A performance of legitimacy, on how she must rehearse her right to be in a place.

This film explores her struggle with displacement, belonging and identity as she navigates living in spaces that never truly feel like her own. Beginning on the vast shores of Puri in Eastern India, the narrative follows her journey to London, where she experiences increasingly confined living arrangements and a persistent feeling of being an outsider.

A LITTLE BACKSTORY
Shruti and Yen first met on a film set in 2024. Yen had thrown a crew callout via a creative WhatsApp group and that's how Shruti ended up on board as the Production Designer. As they worked to bring a body horror world to life, from sourcing herbal cigarettes on Amazon to making real vomit out of biscuits in a papercup, their collaboration grew naturally and comfortably.

A couple of months later, Yen got an email from Shruti about a film fund opportunity along with an invitation to team up again, but this time with Shruti stepping into the role of Writer/Director. Now, as they head into the final round of interviews for the fund, they’re hopeful the story speaks to something universal and that this new chapter of their creative journey finds the support it deserves.

Our vision focuses on the invisible lines that define belonging. The film observes rather than intrudes, framing the protagonist in confined interiors that grow more constrained over time, while public spaces remain vast and unwelcoming.

The film draws inspiration from Roy Andersson's "A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence," with its detached tableau framing that observes human beings in confined spaces, Jonathan Glazer's "The Zone of Interest," which finds horror in domestic banality, and Mohammed Rasoulof's "Seed of the Sacred Fig," which masterfully portrays how systematic surveillance breeds justified paranoia. The film lingers on moments of waiting, hesitation, and absence, following a woman on the margins, yearning for a place to root herself, knowing she may never find it.

Similar films mentioned as influences include "Nomadland" (2020), "All We Imagine As Light" (2024), "Roma" (2018), and "My Name Is Loh Kiwan" (2024), all works that explore displacement, belonging, and marginalized experiences.

CREW BIO 👇🏾