Museum of Goa
in collaboration with indie cinema community Aabobo, is hosting a three-day indie film festival
from today, November 30 to December 2, 2018.
Founded by Devashish
Makhija, director of films like ‘Ajji’ (2017) and ‘Bhosle’ (2018), Aabobo is a
community of people with the same artistic inclination and love for indie
cinema that supports independent cinema practitioners.
One of the films that will be showcased at the festival is
titled ’The Housemaids’. The debut film of director Asawari Jagushte with
screenplay by Nihaarika Nagi tells a subversive tale about class and
co-dependent relationships under domestication. The movie was inspired by Jean
Genet’s play ’The Maids’. The movie revolves around the mind space of two
sisters and their journey through their oppressed captivity together, where
they spend their time enacting a freedom that they never feel. “Jean Genet, one
of the most notorious outlaw-artistes of the post war avant-garde theatre,
often wrote about people on the fringes of society, he wrote about outcasts and
those made to feel ‘other’ by society. The play was inspired by the true story of
the Papin Sisters in 1930s, France. I wasparticularlycuriousaboutthemakingofsuc
hwomen,theirdesiresandwants. When Ireadthe screenplay by Nihaarika, what struck
me most were the boundaries of a maid with her Madame, the relationship between
the two maids and the relationship that lies between them and their Madame,
says Asawari.
The idea of such a
film was to give voice to the desires and wants of those deemed as outcasts by
a society steeped in class-distinction.
Asawari has always
been inquisitive about the notions of privilege and skin colour that are rooted
deep into Indian society. She aimed at digging into the inner world of those
who belong to the lower class through the eyes of two woman that only have each
other in their oppressed captivity. She explains: “With Verena and Cecilia as
the housemaids, I wanted to peel the inner world of two such women – who only
have each other. So I created a space where thesecharacterscouldbreathe
,thriveandleadlivesoftheirownmaking.Inthedocumentary ‘GreyGardens’, thefilmmakers represented ‘bigEdie’and
‘littleEdie’byacceptingthem,similarlyIcreatedaspacewherethetwohouse
maidscouldliveand speak. While Verena and Cecilia’s behaviour is driven by
their past, we chose to hide the backstory from the audience. We wanted the
story to act as a bit of a Rorschach test, encouraging audience to imprint
their own emotions onto the two characters.”
Fundamentally, the
film is about companionship and womanhood, told through a female perspective.
“The charactersweredevelopedincollaboration withthetwoactorsKirtanaKumarandNihaarikaNegibyhavingintensivetrainings,
rehearsals and conference calls that discovered a 30-year-old relationship
between the maids. We wanted to create a world that blurs the lines between
illusion and reality, the maids cherishing their new dream in to the world of
the unknown,” reveals Asawari.
The 23-minute film
looks beyond traditional representation and seeks to examine the inner lives
of those less thought of so that it might hold up a mirror to society. With a
feeling that is ancient, the treatment of the film is contemporary. “I hope we
have managed to create aworldthatlooks throughthelensof
theoppressed,inalanguage thatis personal to us. And I hopethe film raises the
same emotions that we felt while making it,”the director states.
A
panel discussion will be held on the first and second day of the festival,
wherein the director of the film, Asawari Jagushte, will also be a part of the
panel.