To The East
Directed by Mónica G. Carter
Written by Ambika Subra
Produced by Tocaya
Development support from the Satyajit Ray Institute in Kollkata
Language: Spanish / English / Tamil
Synopsis:After receiving a settlement that binds her to silence, Maya, an Indian-American woman adrift in Mexico City, embarks on an obsessive reconstruction of her childhood Bharatanatyam dance camp. Isolated and unmoored, she channels her longing for belonging into a full-scale reenactment, casting actors to recreate past instructors, classmates, and even her younger self. With the support of a well-connected Mexican advisor, she funds and stages this surreal experiment—an exact replica of the past, built from memory.
But as Maya pushes her performers to embody their roles with unsettling precision, cracks emerge. The utopia she remembers begins to distort, revealing the oppressive hierarchies, perverse guru culture, and silent complicities woven into tradition. At the heart of these buried truths is Roopa, her estranged childhood best friend, whose presence forces Maya to confront the fractures in their friendship and the darker realities of the camp they once idealized.
Set in a country neither home nor foreign, To The East is a meditation on memory’s illusions, cultural dislocation, and the blurred lines between nostalgia, trauma, and reckoning. Blending psychological drama, absurdist humor, and multicultural tension, the film asks: Can rebuilding the past ever heal the present? Or does reenactment only sharpen the ghosts of what was left behind?
Core Essence:To The East explores the weight of trauma, the longing for belonging, cultural identity clashes, and the idea of home as something shaped internally.
To The West: A Dance Tour To The East expands its themes of cultural duality and the exploration of trauma through movement—becoming a live international dance tour blending Bharatanatyam with the dance traditions of each host country.
These dance performances are not recreations of the film but fresh interpretations of its complexities. Choreography happens per location and collaborators attached. The live tour introduces classical Indian dance to new audiences, fostering cross-cultural dialogue and expanding the film’s universe.
Featuring Bharatanatyam dancers from the film alongside a slate of international classical dancers, the project collaborates with international dance companies for country-specific choreographies.
For example, in Mexico, we will collaborate with dance company El Ballet Nepantla to explore the relationships between the Indian and Mexican culture.
In America, we will collaborate with the Los Angeles Dance Project (which, recently, featured the work of Mythili Prakash). In France, we will collaborate with La Horde.
Directed by Tocaya, each performance integrates Bharatanatyam and local dance traditions, bridging cultures through movement and storytelling.