Bandit Queen (Blu-ray) Twilight Time

Director Shekhar Kapur (Elizabeth) brings us the horrifying real-life story of Phoolan Devi (Seema Biswas): born a lower-caste girl in rural India’s patriarchal society, “married” at 11, repeatedly raped and brutalized, she finds her freedom only as an avenging warrior, the eponymous Bandit Queen (1995). Devi becomes a kind of bloody Robin Hood; this extraordinary biographical film offers both a vivid portrait of a driven woman and a savage critique of the society that made her.