Narmada: A Valley Rises is beautifully photographed, inspiring film. It documents a 200 kilometre non-violent Gandhian march involving 6000 participants. The film offers a compelling and intimate portrait of a unique movement while raises critical and universal issues of human-rights, social justice, and development within a democracy.

In the heart of India flows the Narmada River. Steeped in legend and history, sacred to the Hindus, the Narmada and its fertile valley provide home and livelihood for the indigenous peoples, the Bhils and Bhilalas, who live and work upon its shores.

Downstream in the state of Gujarat a massive dam known as the Sardar Sarovar Project is nearing completion. The dam is partially funded by the World Bank and promoted by politicians and business leaders as a scheme to provide electricity to urban dwellers and water to drought prone regions in northern Gujarat. What they fail to mention is that, it will destroy hundreds of tribal and farming villages and displace over 160,000 people.

It will also engulf thousands of square kilometres of some of the richest farmland in Asia Construction of the dam has proceeded without the knowledge and consent of those who will be most affected: the valley's inhabitants.

Medha Patkar, a charismatic 35-year-old social activist from Bombay, has lived with the people of the Narmada valley since 1985 and has been instrumental in organising a grassroots movement against the dam. The 76-year old Baba Amte, one of India's most respected social activists, has joined her and others in the Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save Narmada Movement).

Narmada: a Valley Rises follows Medha, Baba, and more than 6000 farmers and tribal people as they embark, Christmas Day 1990, on an epic 200-kilometre march from the state of Madhya Pradesh to the dam site in Gujarat. Their goal: to draw national and international attention to human rights abuses and to pressure the Indian government into conducting a comprehensive review of the project. In its strategy of peaceful resistance the march is modeled on Gandhi's famous Salt March against British Imperial rule.

Hopes of reaching the dam are dashed when marchers are stopped at the Gujarat border by a massive deployment of state police. Baba Amte, appealing to the democratic principles, tries to cross the border but is refused permission by the Gujarat authorities. A small group of marchers, hands tied in a symbolic gesture of nonviolence, likewise tries to push through police lines but becomes embroiled in a confrontation in which several leaders are dragged away and arrested.

As demands for negotiations with the government go unheeded the two sides settle into a long tense waiting game. At an impasse, Medha and six other activists decide upon a risky strategy: they will begin an indefinite fast. As the health of the fasters deteriorates to a critical point, support for the movement spreads throughout India and the international community.

Faced with growing criticism, the World Bank makes the unprecedented announcement that it will hold an independent review of the Sardar Sarovar Project - a review that will eventually lead to its withdrawal of funding.

Although the fast and the march come to an end, the struggle in the Narmada valley continues.

Despite the withdrawal of the World Bank support, the Indian government has continued with the dam's construction. Peaceful resistance has been met with further police repression. As the inhabitants of the valley demonstrate their willingness to die rather than see their land and way of life destroyed, the movement to save Narmada has become a symbol in the international struggle to place human rights and social justice at the forefront of developmental policy.