“It is the underlying themes that make Our Share of Sand a worthwhile watch.”

After water, sand is the second most consumed natural resource on our planet. An estimated 50 billion metric tons is extracted every year to fuel the global construction industry. This has a strong ecological impact, and because ‘sand mining’ is often done in countries where regulations aren’t as strict (or simply not followed), a ‘sand mafia’ has sprung up, criminal networks that not only extract and trade sand illegally, but also subject their workers to the dangers of the profession. While it is not stated that the protagonist’s father is part of such a syndicate, it is in this world that Chilean-born, London-based filmmaker Shalini Adnani situates her debut feature Our Share of Sand. Adnani, a 2025 Screen International Star of Tomorrow, crafts a fine coming-of-age story about a girl confronted with the harsh realities of a world that is alien to her, and her way to reckon with worker exploitation and class inequality in India.

After years of living in the UK, Maya (Maya Mehta) and her mother Priti (Ellora Torchia) return to India to reunite with Maya’s father Rohan (Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub), who has set up a sand mining business during their absence. The family is affluent, a result of Rohan’s father finding a rough diamond the size of a small egg many years ago. Maya’s Hindi isn’t very good, but she nevertheless strikes up a friendship with Kiran (Krish Raj More), a boy around her age who works in her father’s business. His job is to dive to the bottom of the river with a bucket and bring up the sand. One night, when Maya forces her father to take her along on the job, Kiran dives too deep and ruptures his eardrum. Under police interrogation Maya supports her father’s story, even if she knows he’s lying about the depth Kiran dove to. The family keeps Kiran under employment as a servant at the house, but Maya and her mother begin to unravel Rohan’s exploitation of his workers, finding out that Kiran isn’t the first boy to go deaf. Maya knows only one way to hurt her father, which is to steal the thing that secures the family’s wealth: the diamond.

The story of Our Share of Sand is pretty straightforward and can’t always escape the tropes of the coming-of-age genre. Kiran for instance is a rather generic ‘friend from the other side of the tracks’ seen in films like this; Romeo and Juliet they are not (they’re simply too young), but you get the idea. Most characters lack definition and are basically archetypes, including Rohan; the film’s true arc lies with Maya, logically, but a bit more characterization for the supporting cast around her would have been welcome. The only character to escape this problem to some extent is Priti, a gifted musician whose talent offers her little opportunity in this new country, to her increasing frustration.

It is the underlying themes that make Our Share of Sand a worthwhile watch. The simple story is a hook on which Adnani, of Indian origin, can hang her exploration of a number of social issues. The poor and hazardous working conditions of menial laborers and the disdain of the higher class towards the lower are not just a backdrop of the story, but part of its core framework. Maya provides the perspective that is meant to open her own eyes, and the audience’s eyes as well, on these issues. Maya herself is subject to another, lesser known social inequality, which is the way native Indians look down on Indian expats coming from abroad. As she is interrogated about the fateful incident with Kiran, the police officer’s “You’re British? Look at you!” drips with haughtiness, and at the family dinner table Priti is subjected to more subtle jabs about her outsider status.

Adnani’s treatment of these issues is the film’s strongest suit. Her direction is solid, with a good eye for composition (look out for a shot of the family and Kiran on a small boat, framed in such a way your eyes are naturally drawn to Maya). Her filmmaking is generally quite ‘safe’; a bit more experimentation and a little less shot / reverse shot would have made the film more visually interesting. Nevertheless, it’s an attractive film to watch thanks to Adric Watson’s lovely cinematography that dapples it in warm browns and greens. Our Share of Sand is a promising start for a filmmaker clearly still trying to find her own voice, and the film could do well in the UK’s awards season given the pedigree behind it. Hopefully Adnani’s sophomore effort will see her be a bit more daring.