Uprooted

When France passed a law in 2004 banning conspicuous religious symbols in public schools, the law was understood by many as targeting Muslim headscarves. For Sikh students, the consequences were just as severe. Young Sikhs who refused to remove their turbans were expelled or driven out of school. The problems didn't stop at the school gates: without a bare-headed photo, they couldn't obtain ID cards, driving licenses, or passports — documents that every French citizen is entitled to but that Sikh students couldn't access without violating their faith.

Uprooted captures the daily reality of young Sikhs navigating this system: the harassment, the institutional indifference, and the particular frustration of being excluded from civic life in a country whose liberation from Nazi occupation was partly made possible by Sikh soldiers. The film follows young people who are organizing, meeting with members of parliament, and building a case for their right to exist as fully themselves in French public life. Uprooted is a film about what it costs to be visibly different in a country that believes itself to be neutral.