Leaving Home

Traditional Marriage in India

Most of India's 1.2 billion people inhabit villages. Teenager Renu and her upper caste family live in Rankhandi, one of these villages (100 miles north of Delhi). LEAVING HOME is their story. Renu wants to become a big city teacher. Instead, after a traditional marriage Renu must move to her husband's village and hope her daughter's dreams eventually will be fulfilled. Leaving Home is about rural life, castes, weddings, marriage, sex, abuse, family--and change. As the film unfolds, restrictions on the rights of village girls and women may shock the western viewer. Many in our culture may consider Renu's way of life one step removed from slavery. But all of this is "normal" in Rankhandi.