This captivating epic premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in the Directors’ Fortnight program. Filmmaker Anurag Kashyup has created a roller coaster of brutal intensity and wicked humor through decades of criminal enterprise. He remains one of the most exciting voices in independent Indian cinema, and sits on this year’s Sundance Film Festival World Dramatic Competition jury.

Impersonating the much-feared Quershi bandits, Shahid Khan loots British trains until his identity is revealed and he’s banished to labor in the coal mines of the ruthless Ramadhir Sing. Shahid’s son, the philandering Sardar Khan, vows to restore his father’s honor and becomes the most feared man in Wasseypur. It is Fazal Khan, the marijuana-abusing grandson, who stirs up his family’s long-simmering feud with the Quershi clan. This is a story of vengeance between two warring families in Wasseypur, India, that spans three generations. - C. R.