Constant, reliable electricity is such a given in Vancouver that Deepti Kakkar and Fahad Mustafa’s film provides a much-needed jolt of reality.

The three million residents of Kanpur, India, endure daily power failures for hours on end, which not only makes preparing dinner in the dark difficult, but has real consequences for their ability to work—and thus pay their power bills.

The film does a good job of showing how something so simple is entangled in a political web, and how, depending on one’s perspective, an illegal electrician is either Robin Hood or a thief.

After cringing at the mass of wires and overloaded transformers he draws on to hook up the neighbourhood, you may not take flipping a light switch for granted again.

Cinematheque, May 6 (8:45 p.m.)