An unlikely friendship is put to test as a British corporate and an Indian farmer battle over an ancestral farm in a high stakes board game. But with climate change and modern farming draining the farmer’s land, the line between game and reality begins to blur.
Disruption is a film about two unlikely allies—Charley, a British board game designer, and Amarjit, an Indian farmer—who set out to create a game about survival, only to find that the stakes mirror the harsh realities of their lives.
Charley Hall (28, they/them), a struggling game designer, lives with their parents in rural UK. Inspired by their mother’s work as a food activist, Charley creates Disruption – A Battle for the Future of Food, a game where a corporate giant battles a farmer over land ravaged by climate change. The corporation controls capital, seeds & technology, while the farmer faces debt, dwindling resources, and a hostile climate. Charley is determined to make the game immersive but struggles to define the farmer’s victory in a game where survival depends on profit.
To make the game authentic, Charley contacts Amarjit Adhohi (30), a farmer in Punjab, India, committed to protecting her ancestral land, even as it suffers from drought, pests, and debt. Her family pressures her to lease the land and marry for financial security. Scarred by her father’s pesticide-related death, Amarjit despises modern farming, but the path to profit is through chemical use. Still, her land is her identity.
Charley travels to Punjab to observe Amarjit’s life. What begins as a research trip evolves into a bond. Charley learns that Amarjit’s fight is not just to save her farm, but to preserve her identity as a queer individual in a hostile society. As their friendship deepens, Charley & Amarjit begin play-testing the game as opponents—Charley: corporation, Amarjit: farmer. The game promises prosperity, but Amarjit’s reality is bleak—infestations, heatwaves & crushing debt. Charley watches the game’s cruelty mirror Amarjit’s struggle who now plays it more aggressively to retain her land. With stakes so high: the collaboration turns into a battleground of ideologies, survival & identity.
Can Charley's game embrace sustainability over profit? Can Amarjit retain her land and identity? And what does it mean for humanity if the farmer plays the game like a profit-driven corporation? Most of all, can their friendship survive this high-stakes, asymmetrical game?
Chicken & Egg Development Fund 2024
Producer - Apoorva Bakshi
Producer - Sarvnik Kaur
Producer - Monisha Thyagarajan
Co-producer - Quentin Laurent
