Yarwng (Roots)
(India, 2008, d.Joseph Pulinthanath)
Review by Peter Malone
Yarwng is a significant film on many counts.
It was made with a mostly non-professional cast on location in tribal areas of North East India. It is the third film only to be made in the Kokborok language of the area - and one of the reasons for making the film was an attempt to preserve this language.
It was written and directed by a Salesian priest, Fr Joseph Pulinthanath, a native of Kerala who has worked in this area of India, Tripura state, for many years. In 2002, he released his first feature film, Mathia (The Bangle) filmed in the same area and under the same conditions. Mathia was received well and was screened at a number of Asian festivals, including the International Film Festival in Goa, 2004, the Kolkota Film Festival (2004) and the Dhaka International Film Festival in Bangladesh, January 2006. Beyond Asia, it won the Best Feature Film Award at the Niepokalanov International Film and Television Festival in Poland, 2003.
However, making a film is not easy when it comes to financing. Both Mathia and Yarwng received grants from a number of Catholic funding agencies. Substantial support came from Fr Joseph’s congregation, the Salesians of Don Bosco. Amongst the other organisations which contributed to both films were SIGNIS, the World Catholic Association for Communication, The Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, Rome, and Mission, Aachen.
In going back into the tribal area for Yarwng, Fr Joseph wanted to tell a story about the upheaval that modern progress has caused for the life of the villagers. Projects like the building of a dam and the forced removal of the local people (seen in higher profile in films from China about the building of the Three Gorges Dam, Still Life and the Canadian documentary, Up the Yangtze) took place in India over the past thirty years. The locations for Yarwng are the area of such a dam and population displacement.
While so many films are worthy in their intentions, the questions for a film review must be asked ’how does this work as a film? How does it engage with its audience?’.
The answers for Yarwng are that it is an interesting and sadly entertaining film and that, by telling a story of real people, their lives, their relationships and their struggles, audiences are drawn into the issues via the story and the characters.
Yarwng opens with a tense situation in a household. A husband is complaining to his wife that he has heard gossip about her and he is upset. She patiently works and listens. She has been looking for an opportunity to talk to her husband about her past - and the film goes into flashback for her story. The next part of the film is a gentle love story even as it opens up the prospect of the dam nearing completion and the authorities trying to persuade a disbelieving people that they have to take their possessions (which are frugal) and leave for higher ground.
As with any film about a particular people, there is a great deal of local colour as we observe work in the fields, domestic situations, especially of ageing and illness, the celebration of a feast with food, song, dancing, the attempts of the local authority to make his presence felt but failing in the face of the police (and elephants brought in to crush homes) and their coercion in moving people on. Outsiders also try to swindle people out of their compensation money.
The move and the crisis in the intended groom’s home concerning the health of the elderly means that the couple cannot say goodbye before they leave.
As the wife finishes her sad story for her husband, he goes to talk with the fiance and hears his story, so the audience sees the continuation of the story of the move and the waters rising.
The emotional response to these characters and their plight makes for a challenge to feelings and wondering how the difficulties could be resolved - or not.
Although the situation of local people having to migrate for a dam, for electricity and for benefits that the authorities speak about but which don’t reach the people is a complex one, Yarwng is essentially a simple story about simple people and a simple way of life that serves as humane model for those whose lives get far more complicated.
This is a Catholic contribution to social awareness in a country that is principally Hindu, which has its Muslim minority and believers in local and traditional religions.
This was acknowledged by the cinema professionals of India when the film opened the Panorama section of the International Festival of India in Delhi 2008 and was awarded a jury prize. Screenings are anticipated in festivals during 2009, for instance, Brisbane. There will be a screening at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in June.
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http://www.signis.net/article.php3?id_article=3026
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