Close-up on women directors

KERALA IS not God's own country, but Goddess' own country, one could argue. There are more than 108 temples in the State dedicated to Mother Goddess. Women constitute 50 per cent of the Kerala population. Most of them are graduates or post-graduates; at least 60 to 70 per cent of them are employed.

Despite such glorious socio-cultural achievements by Kerala women, it was surprising that few of them turned up for an important event such as the Fifth International Film Festival of Kerala, held in Kozhikode recently.

Women are yet to realise the social, political and cultural potential of cinema. My conversations with delegates from outside Kerala revealed that they were as puzzled as myself about the strange attitude of Kerala women towards cinema.

Women were indeed present at the festival - as images in films, as directors, as actresses, as programmers, as critics and as speakers at seminars. There was even an Open Forum on ``Women and cinema''. A well- known director commented wryly, ``There were just enough women to sit on the dais.''

Enough of women were shown in the films, right from the opening, ``All about My Mother'' to the works in the retrospective section such as ``Edipo Re'', ``Medea'', ``Mamma Romma'', ``Rainy Days'', and to the competition entries such as ``The Lady'', ``Two Women'', ``Deveeri'', ``Saroja'' and ``The Last Malay Woman''.

The competition section also marked the arrival of two young women film directors - Kavitha Lankesh, with her ``Deveeri'' and Manju Bora, with her ``Baibhab''.

From Iran came Ensieh Shah Hosseini, with ``Deadline'', a short fiction film set against the background of the Iran-Iraq war. Hosseini, a graduate in cinema, researcher and novelist, was a reporter during the Iran-Iraq war. She says, ``This film is based on my own experiences''.

Asked about the style of the film, Hosseini said, ``I have a literary background. I have published a book, which won the best gold prize instituted by the Cultural Ministry of Iran. So, in my film, I have attempted to combine literature and cinema.''

She is courageous and daring. ``I had no money. So I had to make a film with 2 million tomans (1,000 dollars). All the technicians and actors who took part in the film, did it free.''

Sound plays an important role in this film. War sounds were reproduced artificially to give the film a sense of authenticity and ambience. ``Similarly, photographs of war scenes were used, as I did not have funds to shoot on location.''

Can a war film be produced in a small location? She managed to do it and it goes on to prove her determination. ``My film is very different from the official films produced on the same subject. I am very critical about the war and have countered it with a totally different emotion: love.''

Tata Amaral from Brazil won attention with her film, ``Through the Window''. Born in Sao Paulo, she has been active in the film world since 1983. She began her career as a projectionist and went on to be an assistant director and an independent director. She is currently working as a visiting lecturer at the University of Communication and Art Film School.

``I want to make people realise my emotions, the sufferings I endured,'' she said. The film has reference to her mentally disturbed 20- year-old daughter Ana Carolina, who stays with her husband at present, from whom she is separated. ``It is not my own story; it is a reflection of the attitude of parents all over the world towards children. Unlike the traditional Brazilian parent, I am very close to my daughter and have given her all the freedom she deserves. I am neither possessive nor overly protective.''

The film, though it deals with reality, has not adopted a clear- cut realistic approach. Tata commented, ``Brazil is a country with 118 million people; there are many film enthusiasts, however, very few women directors.''Gonul Donmez Colin is a programme adviser to many film festivals including the ones at Calcutta and Kerala. She got such films as ``Aksuat'', ``The Lady'' and ``Two Women'' for IFFK. ``I wish to introduce to India and other Asian countries films from Iran, Kazhakhstan and Turkey. Also, I would like to recommend Asian films to European and American festivals. I am here to make a selection for the Mannheim festival. I am impressed with films such as ``Deveeri'', ``Sree'' and ``Saroja''. I have recommended Shaji's ``Vanaprastham'' for the Istanbul film festival,'' she said.

As for Iranian films, Gonul is more interested in films made by women directors such as Tahmineh Milani (``Two Women'') and Rakshan Bani Etemad (``Blue Veil''). ``They are very courageous women. They know how to get around the restrictions imposed by conventions. In Iran, illicit man- woman relationship cannot be shown directly in films. Rakshan Bani, in her film, ``The May Lady'' got around this restriction by not showing the man (lover) physically. But his presence was indicated through voice- over.''

Gonul also spoke highly of Dariush Mehrjui, the director of the Iranian film, ``Banoo'', screened in the festival. Even his earlier films had women as central characters. I think of him as the T. V. Chandran of Iran. Gonul was of the opinion that this film festival was more impressive than that held in Kochi.

Phyllis Mollet, director of Communications and Festivals of FIAPF (International Federation of Film Producers' Association), commented, ``FIAPF is involved in arranging festivals and defending the interests of producers. The specific activities are related to intellectual property rights, piracy problems and research and lobbying for producers all over the world.''

Co-producer of the film, ``The Split'', Eliane Stutterhein said, ``It is a co-production involving many countries. The crew was chosen from different European countries. The cost of production was 15 million French francs (US dollar 2 million).''

The director of this film, Canan Gerede, is an important woman film maker of Turkey. Her daughter, Bennu Gerede, plays the lead role in ``The Split''. Canan Gerde's films have won many awards in International film festivals such as Koln (Germany), Sochi (Russia), Angiers (France) and Turkey.

``This is definitely a woman's film in the sense that both its producer and director are women. It is based on the culture of the author/director and is a film on a social event as seen by a woman director.

As an important French producer (she had co-produced Mrinal Sen's ``Genesis'') Eliane commented, ````The Split'' proves that collaboration between citizens of different European countries and cultures can lead to a quality film with a clear identity.''

Heidi Draper, co-director of the film, ``Home, Sweet Home'' said, ``There were many unique features to this challenging experiment.

The directors were from two countries, Zimbabwe and France. The film was shot in DV and transferred to 35mm. The film finds its form from a long conversation between the actors during a car trip.''

The directors, who live together, brought up scenes from their own childhood to enrich the film. They themselves have funded the film with support from their family - a daughter helped in editing.

Finally a word from Kavitha Lankesh, the budding woman director from Karnataka.

About the subject of her film, she said, ``I liked it because it dealt with a woman and a small child. Raw emotions such as love and anger reflected in a distraught street boy's words that moved Lankesh to write the novel. When I read the book, it was these aspects of the novel that made me decide to make it into a film.''

VASANTHI SANKARANARAYANAN

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