Ankkitha Vinesh

Mr Gunduz

DX-Arts

7/7/25

The Complexities of Binti

Binti follows a young Himba girl from Earth, as she becomes the first of her people to be accepted into Oomza University. This story dives into topics like discovery and self-identity. What stood out to me the most was her courage to leave everything behind like her home and family even if it came at the expense of her feeling like the “odd one out”. I can relate to this since I underwent a similar experience to Binti herself. Binti and I both are the first people EVER to enter a prestigious university as well as a whole new field of study. More specifically, my family mostly enters medical, law, or business and I was the first person to ever pursue a future in a completely new field as well as study in a university in America. Reading this made me see myself in her pretty well. As much as this was a big step for me, I also felt unsure since this is something completely new to me and the whole family, just like Binti. Binti also mirrors our current world with the idea of how much we may have to sacrifice just for the pursuit of knowledge; especially in a world that is changing constantly. Cultural displacement and global inequality are some of the biggest challenges we face and Binti allows us to think about these issues and reflect on them on a global scale. Stories like Binti give us space to imagine solutions beyond our current limitations (environmentally or mentally) and I have a multitude of moods/aesthetics I can use in my work in the future.