Certainly one of the top films you will watch this year is in the Seattle South Asian Film Festival, which opens on October 31 with a night of short films, food, and music. The movie is called Fandry, and it concerns a young man, Jabya (Somnath Awghade), who has two goals: One is to catch a black sparrow, and the other is to capture the heart of a young woman, Shalu (Rajeshwari Kharat). For reasons relating to class and color, Jabya's first goal is far more realistic than his second. He might be handsome and have a gorgeous smile, but he is an untouchable, a member of the lowest caste. Shalu, on the other hand, is a member of the middle class, and her skin is much lighter than Jabya's. Despite these real limits, the young man spends his days dreaming about what will never happen: her walking with him, her holding his hands, her light-skinned body resting next to his dark body.

Jabya's family lives on the edge of a village and struggles to make ends meet by selling baskets at the market, selling Popsicles from a bicycle, selling labor to local farmers, and chasing pigs. The last job is the shameful one. The village is terrorized by wild little black pigs. The pigs appear and disrupt whatever the villagers are doing—kids playing games during break, a family trying to relax after a long day, a religious festival. But the only people who can catch and kill these troublesome and noisy animals are the untouchables, Jabya's family. Early in the film, a man orders Jabya, who is walking to school, to get rid of a pig that's trapped in a hole next to his porch. Jabya flatly refuses and continues walking. He is too proud to do untouchable work. He is rebelling against the whole social order of his rural world. This revolt, however, has real and material consequences for him and his family.

Nagraj Manjule's film is expertly paced, elegantly scored (no sitars but mandolins and violins), and packed with convincing details of village life. The film also has the best Facebook scene you will find in all of cinema.

The Seattle South Asian Film Festival runs Oct 31–Nov 9 at various theaters; see ssaff.tasveer.org for more information.