As Goa, India’s smallest state comes to grip with growing migration, three stories unfold around its unique bread. Stories of people dealing with migration, changing culture and the need to earn a living.

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Synopsis

In Goa are two bakeries in  Goa; they are as similar as they are different. Alzira’s family has been baking bread for generations. They might be ‘insiders’ but are challenged to find local Goan workers in this labour intensive trade. The survival of the bakery thus depends on the daily toil of family members. Not far away is another bakery run entirely by ‘outsiders’. Kiran and his co-workers set out daily at the crack of dawn, cycling for miles to deliver bread. Displaying the tenacity of migrants, they adapt to a new trade, new language and even new diet. While the two bakeries labour on, a returning migrant, Marius, is on a mission. Marius’ family is originally from Goa and he has set himself the task of reclaiming bread of the past. He hits the streets determined to achieve his goal.

 

Goa’s bread, locally called pão, successfully made the journey from ‘outsider’ to ‘insider’ after it was made popular in Goa by its former Portuguese rulers. Now, traditional bakers are leaving the trade even as nostalgia for this unique bread grows; and a new set of bakers from across the state border fill in.

 

2020, India

50 minutes

Konkani, English, Kannada

English subtitles

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Director’s note

I was born and raised in Goa and have experienced first hand the syncretic character that defined this former Portuguese territory.

 

After years of living away, upon return, it was apparent that my home state was changing. A large-scale demographic tilt has made Goa acutely aware of its small fragile culture. Like the rest of the world, it is struggling to understand the layered narrative of migration.

 

For me, pão is a tool to convey the story of change.

 

When the Portuguese came to Goa, they came with their bread. Hindus initially shunned bread; it was used as a tool for proselytization. Goans soon became expert bakers, many of them migrated to Mumbai (then Bombay), taking pão to this global metropolis of the British Empire and beyond. Today, bread is staple diet across community and class in Goa. However, local bakers are leaving the trade and a migrant workforce is filling this void.

 

Every stage of working on the film was a learning. One of my biggest take-aways? In an intimate society such as Goa, bread is a tool to stake claim to belong.