Of suitcases and caskets

The story of Dhan Bahadurs and their dreams of a good life returning home dead should end.

“So many people, how did they all die?” asks an old war veteran in an intensely chilling scene in Fidel Devkota's film The Red Suitcase , set to release Friday, April 12. The ex-lahure, played by Bipin Karki, is shocked to know from his interlocutor, a mortuary vehicle driver, about the number of dead bodies of Nepali migrant workers that arrive at the airport each day. The driver, played by Saugat Malla, then says, “The government is responsible for all these deaths.” In the film, Malla's character is seen riding his jeep to Malewa village to deliver the corpse of Dhane, who is yet another victim of sub-human working conditions in Qatar, where he went as a migrant worker to build a football stadium for the 2022 World Cup. The casket that carries Dhane’s dead body is accompanied by a red suitcase inside which is a cacophony of dreams, despair and death.