Deep in India's Punjab region lives the fierce Neelam Bala, a warrior midwife working to save unborn baby girls—an arduous mission in a country with a strong cultural preference for sons. Award-winning director Rama Rau interweaves Neelam's inspiring story with that of the Village of Men, so called because no girl has been born there in over two decades. Desperate to get married, the men of the village must look elsewhere to fulfill their expectations of family life. By comparison, the magical Village of the Daughter Tree plants a tree every time a little girl is born. Once an adult, the girl can use the fruits of the tree to make a living and gain economic freedom. Through these thematically interlinked stories, The Daughter Tree paints a multi-faceted portrait of how a country with one of the most lopsided ratios of men to women is coping with this alarming population imbalance. Aisha Jamal
Canadian Spectrum program sponsored by TVO.