

Sita is a Hindu goddess, the leading lady of India's epic the Ramayana and a dutiful wife who follows her husband Rama on a 14 year exile to a forest, only to be kidnapped by an evil king from Sri Lanka. Despite remaining faithful to her husband, Sita is put through many tests. Nina (the filmmaker Nina Paley herself) is an artist, who finds parallels in Sita's life when her husband - in India on a work project - decides to break up their marriage and dump her via email. Three hilarious Indonesian shadow puppets with Indian accents - Linking the pouplarity of the Ramayan from Inda all the way to the Far Easy - narrate both the ancient tragedy and modern comedy in this beautifully animated interpretation of the epic. In her first feature length film, Paley juxtaposes multiple narrative and visual styles to create a highly entertaining yet moving vision of the Ramayana. Musical numbers choreographed to the 1920's jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw feature a cast of hundreds: flying monkeys, evil monsters, gods, goddesses, warriors, sages, and winged eyeballs. A tale of truth, justice, and a woman's cry for equal treatment. Sita Sings the Blues earns its tagline as 'The Greatest Break-Up Story Ever Told'.