Water

Deepa Mehta's Oscar-nominated film Water tells the tragic story of widowed women in India. According to her faith's Holy Scriptures, a Hindu wife has three options when her husband dies: she can kill herself, marry her husband's younger brother, or live in isolation.

The widows in the story live as social outcasts in an ashram, either by choice or coercion, dependent on alms (and, as the audience learns later, prostitution) for their rent and food.

When one of the shamed widows takes her own life, a deeply religious widow named Shakuntala begins to question the morality of her religion's doctrine. She takes an exploited young widow away from the ashram to see Gandhi speak. The Great Spirit -- a champion of India's oppressed widows and Untouchables -- states "For several years, I believed that God is truth; but now I have realized that Truth is God."

Gandhi's speech erases the moral doubt of the widow (and the audience). The message is clear: we should treat every person humanely, even if it means defying our society's most sacred institutions. In the touching final scene, Shakuntala tries to save her young companion from the hardship of a widow's life, by giving her away.