Victoria plans to run—to run from her parents, her past, and the life chosen for her. But when a rooster meant for a church festival lands in her beauty salon, escape is delayed by chaos, comedy, and revelation.
As clients cycle through and emotions boil over, Victoria is forced to confront love, faith, and independence — all within a single transformative day.
Victoria is having a very bad day in Kerala, India. On the bus to go to work, her friend insists that Victoria needs to take the live rooster (that is to be sacrificed at a shrine) and hold on to it for the day. Victoria knows her boss won’t like it, but can’t say no.
Victoria works at a beauty salon (no men allowed written on front door) and her co-worker is out sick and the boss leaves early on a Saturday -the busiest day of the week. Amid the coming and going of customers we listen to their stories,
Victoria is also going through personal problems.
Problems with her parents and her boyfriend are compounded by her living at home. They are complicated by differences in caste and religion. Abuses, large, small, and complex plague her. She is undecided as to how to move forward. Are there solutions in everyone’s stories?
This is the US Premiere of Victoria. The original language is Malayalam with English subtitles. The movie was produced by the Kerala State Development Corporation and by the Women Empowerment Initiative of the Government of Kerela. The productions values were very good with most of the movie taking place in the beauty salon.
This movie feels especially authentic to me. In my youth I worked in a beauty salon and so I was interested in how that would be portrayed this movie. Because it is set in India, the beauty salon parts are both familiar and very different. But the women who come in and their stories are very much true to life.
Victoria is showing twice during Cinequest and is also available during Cinejoy, the virtual version running March 24 through 31, 2026. Click here for more information.
Showings
Wed, Mar 11 4:55 PM California Theater Center, San Jose
Fri, Mar 20 7:05 PM Alamo Drafthouse Cinema (Screen 2), Mtn View
For Trailers and Ticket Information
Debbie Bretschneider
March 7, 2026