The opening film at Film Southasia’ 2015, begins as an emancipatory fable of development. It traces the story of a young girl, Shanta Darnal, who receives a scholarship and leaves her poverty-stricken family in a mountain village in Nepal to study in Kathmandu. The narrative takes a tragic turn when Shanta commits suicide, leaving her family to cope with their lives and shattered hopes. The title draws on a fable recounted by Shanta’s father in the film: of a man who has been told he will be killed by a tiger. He tries to protect himself with guards, but when he draws a tiger to show the guards the creature they must guard him against, the illustration comes alive and devours him. The tussle between fate and human agency, dreams and destiny forms the heart of the film. Directors Amy Benson and Scott Squire, a Seattle-based couple, spoke to Taran N Khan about their journey

She was so kick ass. She was from a very poor village but she learned English in about a year, she was super bright. On that trip we met her and Kumar, her (elder) brother and his wife, and filmed with them. She told us she was going to be a doctor and would go back to her village. She was adamant that the reason why her family was so poor was because her parents had too many kids, and she said she was going to go back and teach women about birth control.