The Goat Life

The Goat Life follows Najeeb Muhammad, a migrant worker from the Indian state of Kerala who leaves home for Saudi Arabia hoping to earn enough money to support his family. Instead of the job he was promised, he ends up trapped on an isolated farm in the desert, tending goats under conditions close to slavery, cut off from the outside world and stripped of his passport. He eventually begins to consider a dangerous escape.

The film is an adaptation of a novel by the Indian writer Benjamin, itself drawn from real events. It was directed and written by Blessy, whose earlier features include Kaazhcha (2004), Thanmathra (2005) and Kalimannu (2013), making this his fourth film. Prithviraj Sukumaran plays Najeeb, with K R Gokul, Vineeth Sreenivasan, Jimmy Jean-Louis, Aparna Balamurali and Talib Al Balushi among the cast. Blessy produced alongside Jimmy Jean-Louis and Steven Adams. Made on a budget of about 10 million US dollars, it earned roughly 5 million worldwide.

On IMDb it holds a rating of 7.1 from around 50,000 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 7.3 from a much smaller number of votes. A critics' rating of 6.7 from nine reviews sits below both audience scores. It runs 173 minutes.