Four Stars

For all those aspiring dancers out there, Safalta 0 Km follows the journey of a dancer - the extensive struggles he must go through and the risks he must take in order to achieve his dream.

Child soldiers in Africa are at the fore in this tale of a white restaurant owner in an African town bordering a conflict zone. When his son's African friend Abu is abducted, he sets out to find the boy, and walks right into a training camp exploiting children like Abu.

Johnny, a musician, belongs to the itinerent troupe of Hameed the ventriloquist. The star attraction of their show is the talking doll Urvashi - seductress, eternal child-woman, one who cannot age or die. When Hameed's voice fails, he sells Urvashi to Johnny, who returns to his small neighbourhood in suburban Mumbai. He reunites with his childhood sweetheart Rosemary and plans to resume his stage performances with Urvashi. To Rosemary who is eager to help Johnny, Urvashi almost seems like the other woman. Johnny's music and his talking doll are a hit with audiences which only fuels Rosemary's insane jealousy. Communal riots break out in the city and Johnny's songs unveil the true culprits behind the controversy. They hit back and Urvashi is destroyed. Johnny is silenced because his medium of expression is gone. Now Rosemary draws him out of his despair, brings him back on the stage and dances in place of Urvashi - the woman becomes the doll.

Chiara is a young teacher who lives the horror of war trying desperately to make sense of what is happening. In the aftermath of the armistice, plagued by a thousand doubts and a thousand questions, while she wanders through the bombed-out city, she stops in front of a statue of the Madonna and realizes that God is the only ideal that has not collapsed. Thus she chooses to live the Gospel concretely with a single mission: to ensure that "all may be one".

A bartender watches with amusement as two strangers meet and duel verbally in his bar. Katya, a former dancer, is trying to forget the death of her young daughter. Pom, a comedian known for his verbal thrust and parry, tries to charm, shock and disgust his date in turn.