This Gay Marathi Sundance Winner Is Set To Shine at Melbourne International FIlm Fest - Cactus Pears

Bhushaan Manoj and Suraaj Suman in Cactus Pears (Sabar Bonda). Photo: Supplied

Melbourne, get ready — Sundance award winner Cactus Pears (Sabar Bonda), one of 2025’s acclaimed queer films, is about to make its Australian debut.

The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) will host the much‑anticipated screening of Cactus Pears, the tender, breathtaking queer romance that scooped the Sundance World Cinema Grand Jury Prize earlier this year. The film enjoys a 94 % rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Cactus Pears (Sabar Bonda) screens on August 15 and August 17, 2025 at the Melbourne International Film Festival. For Tickets, click here

Directed by Rohan Parashuram Kanawade, this semi-autobiographical Marathi‑language gem follows Anand, a 30‑year‑old Mumbai call centre worker who returns to his family’s rural village after his father’s death.

Trapped by tradition and community scrutiny, Anand hides his sexuality — until a reunion with Balya, his childhood friend turned farmhand, stirs unspoken feelings and long‑buried longing.

Cactus Pears - Raw And Magnetic Performances

What follows is a slow-burn of glances, unspoken words, and stolen moments — a love story set against the lush fields of Maharashtra, balancing cultural duty with the ache for personal freedom.

Kanawade’s direction is intimate and unhurried, with warm, sun‑washed cinematography that lingers on every small gesture. Performances by Bhushaan Manoj and Suraaj Suman are raw and magnetic, giving the film an authenticity that has already won the hearts of festival audiences around the globe.

For audiences, it’s a chance to see one of the year’s most tender and important films in all its cinematic glory.

Don't believe us? Here are some reviews for Cactus Pears (Sabar Bonda), which won the Sundance World Cinema Grand Jury Prize and is set to screen at MIFF on August 15 and 22, 2025:

• The Hollywood Reporter praised the film as a "delicate and understated love story" that avoids clichés with "thoughtful direction and minimalist storytelling," highlighting the "tender warmth" of the main characters' connection and the "striking performance" by Bhushaan Manoj as Anand.

  
  

• Mashable called Cactus Pears a "groundbreaking queer romance" that "presents a narrative overflowing with love while exploring a queer relationship without the shroud of shame," praising its authenticity and the palpable chemistry between the leads.
  

• Rotten Tomatoes characterised the film as a "quiet, often profound queer melodrama" and "a slow-burn, meditative and exquisite look at same-sex love and longing," commending the precise and personal filmmaking which makes it "a piercingly honest document on Indian queer lives".

  
  

• Variety noted Cactus Pears as a "tender approach to unspoken sorrows" and a "rural gay story" that "takes on radiant form with emotional complexities," emphasising its heartfelt and truthful portrayal of queer life within cultural constraints.
  

• The SXSW London festival jury called it “the great modern love story” and praised it as a “stunning portrayal of love and grief, and two people able to find some hope between them despite all the differences of their culture and families”.

  
  

• Screen Daily described the film as "a subdued, sensitive study of bereavement and the quietly radical act of being queer in a rural, lower-class Indian community," appreciating its warm and poignant storytelling.
  

• The Sundance World Cinema jury had this to say about Cactus Pear: "This is the great modern love story. To say it’s an honour to award this tender film is an understatement."