Sonita Gale is an award-winning British documentary director, writer and producer working across access-led, politically engaged, human-centred filmmaking. Her work focuses on migration, power, identity and state accountability, told through lived experience and on-the-ground reporting, with a strong emphasis on ethical practice and long-term impact.

Born in Wolverhampton to Indian parents who settled in the UK following the 1947 Partition, Sonita’s South Asian heritage is central to her storytelling. As a daughter of migrant parents, she is committed to elevating the voices of migrants and marginalised communities, and to interrogating the systems that shape belonging, exclusion and survival in contemporary Britain.

Her feature documentary Hostile (2022) marked her directorial debut. A character-led investigation into the UK’s ‘hostile environment’ immigration policies, the film is told through the experiences of four people from Black and Asian backgrounds and combines intimate access with political and academic analysis. Hostile premiered at Raindance Film Festival, received a UK cinema release, and was longlisted for a BAFTA (Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer) and three British Independent Film Awards. It went on to award-winning international festival runs, broadcast in seven countries, and extensive screenings across the UK and internationally.

Beyond its release, Hostile has had a sustained public and political life. Across a three-year impact campaign—funded by the UK arm of the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation—the film screened widely in cinemas, community venues and educational settings, including twice at the UK Parliament, as well as at the BFI. The campaign brought together policymakers, NGOs, academics, journalists, activists and grassroots organisers to open conversations around the hostile environment, No Recourse to Public Funds, belonging and power.

In 2026, Sonita completed Hostile: Impact Campaign Film, a short follow-up written, narrated and directed by her. The film reflects on how the policies explored in Hostile have evolved since 2022, tracing continuity across governments and situating British immigration enforcement within a wider global escalation of border control and far-right rhetoric.

Alongside her documentary work, Sonita is developing scripted projects, including her first short narrative film exploring identity, power and belonging. She works through her company Galeforce Films, delivering original journalism, short- and long-form films and impact-driven projects, and is currently developing new documentary and narrative work.

Hostile is a film that is deeply personal to me.

My parents migrated to the UK in the 1950s, almost a decade after their lives were irrevocably shaped by the Partition of India. That history of rupture, displacement and survival sits quietly behind everything I make.

During Partition, my mother made a perilous journey, walking 180 kilometres over 16 days from Lahore to the Punjab on the Indian side of the border. Along the way, she witnessed widespread destruction, violence and loss of life. My father’s journey to the UK was different, but no less precarious. When he first arrived, he experienced homelessness and, for a period of time, slept near a post box. It was the kindness of a local man — a stranger — that helped him survive those early days and begin to find stability in a country that offered little safety net for new migrants at that time.

Despite this, my parents went on to build a life in England. Their story of migration — shaped by both hardship and acts of quiet solidarity — planted the seed for what would later become Hostile.

I grew up in the Midlands with Sikh parents, surrounded by a mixed working-class community in Wolverhampton. My father’s corner shop became a hub for that community — a place of conversation, connection and mutual support. No matter how difficult things became, there was a sense that someone would have your back.

When my father died, I was five years old. My mother raised me as a single parent, carrying not only her own history of displacement and loss, but the responsibility of holding our family together. That experience shaped my understanding of resilience, precarity and care from an early age.

When the Covid lockdowns began, I started to see growing numbers of people unable to meet their most basic needs — food, shelter and security. It made me reflect on my childhood and the informal support networks that had sustained us, and on what happens when those networks are eroded by policy.

As I began filming, my focus turned to the very communities I grew up alongside: Sikh, Hindu, Muslim, Black and white working-class communities. The more I filmed, the more I came to understand the ‘hostile environment’ — a system making everyday life unbearably difficult for so many people in this country.

Meeting and filming the participants in Hostile led me on a personal journey of discovery, connecting my family’s history to a wider story of British identity. It reaffirmed to me how integral migrants are — and always have been — to the fabric of this country.

In 2016, without realising how significant it would later become, I filmed an interview with my mother, Sovetra. She spoke about Partition, the British Empire and her relationship to Britain. Years later, that footage became part of my debut film. Her story remains painfully relevant, more than half a century on.

My mother passed away during post-production on Hostile. Losing her meant losing a direct connection to my lineage in India, and the grief hit deeply. Her journey — and the life she built — gave me the strength to tell this story.

Over the last few years, with the support of Picturehouse Cinemas and the UK arm of the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation, Hostile has screened hundreds of times across the UK, including twice in Parliament. These screenings — both cinematic and impact-led — have created space for people to share, first-hand, how the hostile environment continues to shape their lives.

Immigration remains one of the most politicised and emotionally charged issues in Britain. Global conflicts, the rise of far-right rhetoric and shifts in political leadership have intensified these debates, yet migrants’ rights remain an uncomfortable subject within mainstream politics.

Making Hostile has given me a deeper understanding of the long history of immigration policy in this country — and its human consequences. The film exists not only as documentation, but as an act of connection: between past and present, policy and lived experience, and my own family’s story and the wider story of Britain.