Watashi no chôkyô nikki

Every day in Hubli, southwestern India, a group of fifty men undertake the monumental task of feeding nearly 180,000 children and must do so in a few hours. These men aren't superhuman in any way. They are the humble local employees of the Akshaya Patra Foundation. Every day, across the country, this NGO provides free meals to more than one million children. In the Foundation's enormous kitchen in Hubli, the challenge begins in the middle of the night. The highly mechanized kitchen is tailor made to cook over 9 tons of vegetables, 15 tons of rice and spices. All the meals are to be delivered without delay to the different public schools in the region. And for students in poor and isolated villages, this makes all the difference. Throughout the day, this film sticks its nose first in the giant pots of these special cooks and then in the plates of the children who rely on them. —Julien Hamelin