In October 2021, the fisherwomen of Pulicat lake, the largest brackish water lagoon in South India, organised a sumptuous meal for their politicians and bureaucrats. Their plan was to remind the powers-that-be of the rich biodiversity they stand to lose if they sanctioned a massive port that would pollute and all but erase the lake. It was a novel way of making a point, using food as a tool of protest.

The Feast is a film inspired by this event. It tells the story of a  prawn picker Mary who is distraught by the expanding ambitions of a factory where her daughter Josie works. It spews untreated effluents into the nourishing waters of her beloved lake. Caught between the risk of Josie losing her job and the prospect of losing the lake, Mary makes her choice with a desperate plan to convince fellow villager turned politician Thomas to stop the factory. All she needs is her secret ally - the lake itself - to let her tap into their shared memory of childhood tastes, flavoured by its waters and do its magic.Â