Souvik Roy Chowdhury, FVC PG 18

For Sama - by Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts

The film is narrated and presented by one of the co-directors Waad reporting her personal
experiences as Syria descends into an armed civil conflict against their government headed by
President Bashar al- Assad. It is set roughly between events transpiring in Aleppo between 2011
and 2016. The film starts with various student groups and other civilians demonstrate and protest
against the regime, but are soon silenced when they recover lots of bodies of protestors ditched
along the city waterways. Mysterious political murders of what was till then non armed
demonstrating protestors.

The situation goes from bad to worse, as the government doesn’t show any signs of slowing
down and carries on in its acts of mass murders to hold on to power. We see drone shots every
now and then that describes the extent and the progress of damage to the public property. The
city is quickly turned into a war zone and the locals start fleeing the state. But the narrator, who
was studying to become a journalist decides to stay back to record everything as the war
progresses. She and her friends help set up a hospital from an old building as the Russian
warplanes are bombing the area and previously functioning hospitals are destroyed.

The timeline of the events she had recorded is jumbled along the structure of the film, and Waad’s
character goes through this journey as she works alongside these young medical graduates in
setting up the hospital and taking care of the casualties of the war. Along the way she falls in love
with one fellow doctor, becomes pregnant and has a child. The film is narrated as a letter to her
daughter ‘Sama’ as the events unfold, sometimes in determination and dream of seeing the
government topple, sometimes with helplessness as patients die in scores, sometimes
heartbroken when the hospital they built is bombed down, sometimes apologetic for giving birth
and having brought another innocent life in such a cruel world other times triumphant to have
setup newer hospital facilities or having saved lives that would have been left to die. It is an
example of tremendous ideals and humanitarian efforts and sacrifices made by the protagonists
of the film and it demands accolades and commendation of the highest order.

The graphic nature of the images that the film resorts to on a number of occasions with the steady
stream of casualties that are brought in the hospital numbs the audience and on a few occasions
will make you twist in your couch and glance looks elsewhere because its all very hard to take in
at a go. Kind of makes you feel more helpless for the people actually going through this ordeal on
a regular basis for five years as they see the situation only deteriorate. In the end the whole team
is taken out of the city as they along with a host of the remaining people are rescued with the help
of UN. But you know as an audience in 2020 how much more worse the condition got after that
and cant help but wonder how can victims of this war and well all wars recover such a trauma
without going in to severe depression of the loss of their loved ones.

Kamlabai - by Reena Mohan

Seemingly a frail old woman, with wrinkly hands and body and furrowed eyebrows, she must have
been in her late 80s or 90s when the director Reena Mohan started filming her documentary on
Kamlabai Gokhale, India’s first woman actress. Gokhale had been doing theatre from a young age
and the company was her life. Specially after her husband passed away she could stay afloat with
her children only because of the company. While preparing for a film Dadasaheb Phalke got
acquainted with the company and was impressed by the Gokhale mother-daughter duo. This
provided exciting prospect for Phalke who realised he can cast them both for this film Mohini
Bhasmasur which was scheduled to go in production soon.

Reena was in some drought work wise when she came to know about Gokhale, still alive and well
in her Pune home and jumped at the possibility of being able to capture her experience as the first
woman actor in India. She pulled together some resources, and mostly funded the venture with
her savings and with a little help from friends. She got Ranjan Palit on board with camera and
some DIY sound equipments and started regular up and down journey with her small crew
Souvik Roy Chowdhury, FVC PG 18

between Pune and Mumbai (where she lived) to start the shoot. In an interview she had said that
the structure of the film evolved along the course of shoot and most of what she shot was a
conventional formal talking head interviews in the first batch of shoot. As things progressed she
discarded all of those materials and went for a more personal form - because she was taken by
the persona and presence of Gokhale as a performer, that she still retained.

Gokhale speaks very highly of the charismatic personality of Phalke. How he managed the whole
big crew and commanded respect from each and every one of them. As she talks, the little quirks
in her character are revealed to the audience. She jokes around with the crew on a good day,
throwing off hand advices to the filmmaker on screen to get married and have children. This
decision by the filmmaker to keep such remarks in the final cut really brings out the nature of
Gokhale’s character, and makes the film much more than just an account of experiences of India’s
first woman actor. Though we see her struggling to manage simple daily chores because of her
age, living alone in her what seems to be a well maintained 2BHK apartment - she laments the
fact sometimes that nowadays there are hardly times when she gets a chance to see her family,
her sons and grandchildren. A maid visits everyday and makes food for her and cleans the house
and in one of Gokhale’s interaction with her made me remember my grandmother talking to our
maid at the time - always on top and in control on things.

Although she had starred in so many play and movies she remains very modest and humble
about her abilities and achievements. Once, she recalls how during a performance a whole stand
came crashing down with all the people sitting there but they still finished the play as planned -
this incident sums up her character, a real showman all her life.

Cleo from 5 to 7 by Agnes Varda

Agnes Varda was one of the French New Wave filmmakers though she was not in part of the
group of intellectuals who made up the Cahiers du Cinema. Cleo from 5 to 7 is almost a realtime
account of two hours in the life of Cleo, an elegant young up and coming singer as she moves
around in the streets of Paris in cafes and stores and the streets and in her beautiful little
apartment almost always accompanied by a woman, supposedly her employed caretaker.

The film starts with Cleo revealing to the audience that she is suspected to be suffering from
cancer, the tests for which will be out soon. She is at a tarot card reader’s place trying to foresee
her future in apprehension. And the ensuing two hours of her life she gets into an existential crisis
in contemplation of the bad news and it affects her whole outlook of each and every interaction
she undergoes. As she trots home she notices people walking about their business each glancing
gazes at her as they pass by and she in turn gazes back. In a cafe overhearing a couple breaking
up she drifts back into her own thoughts and that brings her to tears. She knows she is an
attractive and desirable young woman, but as the film progresses it unfolds that she has virtually
no one in her life who genuinely cares for her physical and mental well being. She has a boyfriend
who comes to visit for a few minutes, but she doesn’t reveal to him about her trepidations and
instead goes on in full effort to charm him to stay back. Two musicians come for practice but they
are not really friends who care - they might be worried about her health but only because their
bread and butter depends on Cleo being able to perform their compositions. Same with her
caregiver - she accompanies her all through but seems to be only doing so as a diligent employee
ready to say whatever it takes to please her madam however false it may be.

Surrounded by such people who don’t really care and concerned about her health, Cleo often
succumbs to depressive monologues about her existence. Still trying to dress herself up and
trying to pick out the perfect hat that would be a perfect match to her personality - activities that
keep her going. Like how most women have grown up in a society where her appearance is
judged and objectified, being accustomed to the gaze, she looks around at herself in the
numerous mirrors that occupy the spaces she is in and keeps adjusting little tweaks to maintain a
perfect look. In the end she meets a soldier Antoine in a park and goes around talking with him -
at last she feels comfortable in her skin and can forget the tensions and really feel herself
loosening up from being so very conscious of herself all the time.