Exclusive | Rajasthan-set Documentary ‘Herland’ in Main Competition at Moscow International Documentary Film Festival

Kallol Mukherjee’s Herland, a 61-minute documentary about a group of women in rural Rajasthan fighting to access work under MGNREGA, will have its world premiere at the Moscow International Documentary Film Festival, commonly known as DOKer, where it has been selected for the Main Competition. 

It is the only Indian film among the 12 titles competing in the main line-up at the festival, which runs from September 3 to 13, 2026.

Set in a village in Rajasthan where women are forbidden from stepping outside their homes without male permission, Herland follows Bhagyashree and a growing sisterhood as they challenge generations of patriarchal control. Bhagyashree works with an NGO to bring MGNREGA, the government’s rural employment scheme, to her village, but the fight for access to work becomes a larger struggle over equality, mobility, identity and self-worth.

Shot over eight months in Rajasthan in 2025, Herland marks the feature-documentary debut of Mumbai-based Mukherjee and the first documentary produced by filmmaker Nidhi Saxena under Forest Flower Films, in association with Shahtoot Productions.

Herland will subsequently play in the Main Competition of the DokuBaku International Documentary Festival in Azerbaijan in October 2026.

“I chose to produce Herland because it is a deeply human story about women reclaiming their right to work, dignity, and agency in a world that has taught them to remain invisible,” Nidhi Saxena said in a statement. “As a filmmaker, I felt compelled to stand behind a story where an individual woman’s resistance slowly becomes a collective awakening and to give space to voices and experiences that are so often unheard.”

Director Kallol Mukherjee expressed his excitement for the film’s global liftoff. He previously made the documentary short Mic Drop (2024) and was Creative Director on the ZEE5 true-crime series Hathras 16 Days. 

 “For a film rooted in a small village in Rajasthan, this recognition feels deeply significant. Herland began with a discomfort I could not ignore: as a male filmmaker, I am also a product of the patriarchal system I am trying to examine. I cannot stand outside it and pretend to simply observe it."