Sahasi Chori (Brave Girl) is an international co-production between In The Flicker, Film Himalaya, and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. The film was written at NYU by Erin Galey and Antoinette Mullins after Erin spent over a year living in Nepal. Erin stumbled across the story quite by accident and subsequently spent time learning more about it. She traveled the route of a trafficked girl from a village to the border, and spoke with survivors of trafficking who wanted very much for their story to be told as a cautionary tale to other unsuspecting young Nepali women.

Production took place over 18 days entirely in Nepal and the red light district of Mumbai. The script was translated by the actors and a local translator (no small task considering the over 28 dialects of Nepali). Albina Dahal, who plays Bhumika, was a non-actor who rehearsed with actor Jeewan Adhikary (Krishna) for 3 weeks to shape her character and learn a specific mountain dialect. Tillotama Shome (Monsoon Wedding, The Night Manager) also learned Nepali for her role.

Shot by documentary veteran Frederic Menou (Parts Unknown, Trafficked with Marianna Zeller), Erin & team were told by Reed Morano “Frederic has one of the best understandings of natural light I’ve ever seen.” That plus his documentary chops came in handy in Nepal where available circumstances are constantly changing, and can be logistically challenging. The latitude of the Arri Alexa helped capture the stunning landscapes and available light in the urban scenes.

The film was edited by Eric F. Martin (She’s The Best Thing In it, Golden), and the haunting score was composed by Saunder Jurriaans and Danny Bensi (Ozark, The Outsider, The OA).

The film premiered at SXSW ‘13 and was well received on the festival circuit, acquiring 20 awards and screening at 37 festivals worldwide. The film had a long life on numerous distribution outlets such as ShortsTV, BitPix, and still lives on the Film Festival Collective channel on Xfinity Comcast.