Chadwick Boseman, the late Hollywood actor most famous for playing the title role in Black Panther, made history on Thursday by becoming the first actor to receive four Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations for feature films in a single year.
Boseman, who died of colon cancer in August 2020 aged 43, was nominated for Best Actor for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Best Supporting Actor for Da 5 Bloods, and outstanding ensemble nominations for both films.
This year, the Screen Actors Guild Awards will be held on April 4. The annual award ceremony, presented by SAG-AFTRA, made its debut in 1995. In its 27th year, for the first time, nominations were announced on Instagram live by Emily In Paris actor Lily Collins and Snowpiercing actor Daveed Diggs, on Thursday. Nominations are usually announced at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood.
In the Best Actor category, Boseman will compete against Riz Ahmed for Sound of Metal, Anthony Hopkins for The Father, Gary Oldman for Mank, and Steven Yeun for Minari. His competitors in the supporting category are Sacha Baron Cohen for The Trial of the Chicago 7, Daniel Kaluuya for Judas and the Black Messiah, Jared Leto for The Little Things, and Leslie Odom Jr for One Night in Miami.
While Boseman has set a record by winning four nominations in a single year for feature films, earlier actors like Jamie Foxx and Maggie Smith have been nominated four times in the same year, but at least one of those nominations was in a television category.
Despite Boseman’s short life, he continues to be honoured in award functions. Apart from the Screen Actors Guild Awards, he received a 2021 Golden Globe nomination on Wednesday. He also posthumously won the Best Supporting Actor award for his performance in Da 5 Bloods at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards.
Here are some of the other nominations for the Screen Actors Guild Awards this year:
Best Motion Picture Ensemble
Da 5 Bloods Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom Minari One Night in Miami… The Trial of the Chicago 7
Best Male Actor in a Leading Role, Motion Picture
Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal
Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Anthony Hopkins, The Father
Gary Oldman, Mank
Steven Yeun, Minari
Best Female Actor in a Leading Role, Motion Picture
Amy Adams, Hillbilly Elegy
Viola Davis, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Vanessa Kirby, Pieces of a Woman
Frances McDormand, Nomadland
Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman
One of the few instances where modernity makes an appearance in PS Vinothraj’s debut film Pebbles is when a little boy stops to gaze at an aeroplane ﹣ a pale white speck in the blazing sky ﹣while running away from his furious father. A second later, the father catches up, grabs the boy by his collar and brings his senses back to the ground, the vast sweltering landscape lined by swathes of bush and rocks. Another instance comes towards the end of the film where a crushed cola bottle and a pup chewing on it wander into the frame. These objects quietly signify a way of life that exists far away from the characters, geographically as well as in spirits.
Pebbles, produced by Nayanthara and Vignesh Shivan, is set around a man and his son in a parched rural region in Tamil Nadu. They set out for a neighbouring village at the beginning of the film, to meet the estranged mother who had left them in protest against the man’s alcoholism and force her to return home. The journey cannot go smooth for there is a great deal of discord between the father and the son. The man is angry, not just with his family but at the world. The boy is hurt for he misses his little sister whom he hasn’t seen in a while.
The narrative shows no urgency to get into the central story. There is no conventional story with a beginning, middle and an end. The film finds many micro-stories on the road. The aforementioned pup has a piece of thread around its neck ﹣a sign that it once had a master and a home. In the bus the lead characters board, most of the passengers are carrying something dearly. A brass lamp wrapped in a plastic sheet. A figurine. A sleeping infant on the lap of a young mother. A woman boards the bus with a pot of water and complains when the conductor charges a freight fee. The boy has something too. Assorted gifts for his sister. A ragged doll. Some uninflated balloons. The landscape is barren but life thrives despite it.
The main story blends into this narrative mosaic. Vinothraj approaches the film like a still photographer. He doesn’t hammer down a political statement or a philosophy but pins down the elusive poetry in the gentlest of the sights. He has an eye for atmospheric details such as the cadence of the man’s shoulder muscles, the precision of an old rat-huntress’ movements or the safety-pin nestled against a woman’s necklace.
Although it is apparent that the film’s essence is the region’s water scarcity, Vinothraj artfully relegates the subject to the background of the proceedings until the final segment where a long dialogue-less passage animates the ordeal of life. But you see the effect of drought everywhere in the film, like poverty, hunger and violence. It is an interesting narrative choice that frees the film of an outsider’s gaze that reduces places and people into clinical media reports. The only time this approach mildly breaks is when the father, exhausted from the long lonely walk, comes across strange voices and apparitions on the road. A reiteration of an urban misconception about the exotic countryside.
The film’s emotional core is made of the boy’s longing for his mother and little sister. Unlike his father whose behaviour is predictable, steered only by his anger, the boy is quiet and thoughtful. He has an inner rhythm that the roughness of the terrain and the cruelty of his father cannot break. Nothing misses his little inquisitive eyes ﹣a flowering shrub, an abandoned piece of mirror or the unjustness of his father’s anger. He looks, he sees.
The camera, mostly handheld, sometimes goes in circles, elaborating on the environment. The characters move in a circular trajectory too. The father and the son, eventually, come back to the place they had begun their journey. Neither they nor the viewers meet the mother. But they meet other women who must lead innocuously similar lives as her. Women who are tired of the recklessness of the men around them. Women who would patiently wait by the region’s only waterhole for hours to collect some mud-coloured water and keep their family alive. Are people interchangeable? Maybe in a place where the identity of human beings is closely attached to the function they are expected to perform.
Pebbles is part of a new wave happening on the peripheries of Tamil cinema where young filmmakers with little or no experience in filmmaking are coming up with stunning experiments in cinema. Vinothraj’s film is a little bit of everything ﹣ a comedy, a road-movie, a drama about a dysfunctional family ﹣and at the same time, none of these but a collection of photographs that tell the story of a landscape. A meticulous execution of an idea that is hard to pierce through.
****
Pebbles was screened at the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2021.
****
The Pebbles review is a Silverscreen original article. It was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the film. Silverscreenindia.com and its writers do not have any commercial relationship with movies that are reviewed on the site.
The Golden Globes’ list of nominations, announced on Wednesday, saw Netflix garner 42 nominations; with Mankand The Crown leading the way at six nominations each. While Disney followed second with 25 nominations, Amazon Prime Video came next with 10 nominations.
The winners will be announced on February 28.
Netflix original films like David Fincher’s Mank, and the ones that the streaming giant bought, like Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of Chicago 7, made it to the Best Picture category along with Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman, Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland, and Florian Zeller’s The Father. Fincher, Sorkin, Fennell, and Zhao are sharing the Best Director in the Motion Picture category nomination with Regina King of One Night in Miami.
For the first time, three women have been nominated in the best director category in the Globes.
However, representation in other terms remains scant. Out of all the major categories, only four Black individuals have been nominated- late actor Chadwick Boseman, Regina King, and actors Don Cheadle, John Boyega, and Daniel Kaluuya.
The Best Picture category has skipped Netflix’s Oscar bids Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods. Although Boseman and Viola Davis have been nominated for the Best Actor and Best Actress in the Motion Picture Drama category, Lee’s film has been left out entirely.
Chadwick Boseman in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Globes will be held virtually and bio-coastally, from the east and west ends of the USA, the association announced on Tuesday. According to a statement released by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), the curator of Golden Globes, the children of Spike Lee, the three-time Golden Globe nominee, Satchel and Jackson Lee will serve as the 2021 Golden Globe ambassadors.
Netflix’s homegrown series such as The Crown, and The Prom, Ratched, and The Queen’s Gambit have also been nominated.
The Crown actor Olivia Colman and Killing Eve‘s Jodie Comer, have garnered a second nomination in the Best Actress award in a television series (drama). Colman had won the award in 2020. Anya Taylor-Joy has a direct nomination with the Best Actress in a musical or comedy motion picture for Emma, along with her series on the life of a chess prodigy in the run for the Best Television Motion Picture category.
Amazon Prime Video’s Borat Subsequent Moviefilm is in the best comedy or musical picture category. Actor Sacha Baron Cohen has been nominated for the Best Actor in the same category for Borat.
The foreign-language film category saw Denmark’s Another Round, France and Guatemala collaborative La Llorona, Italy’s The Life Ahead, USA’s Minari, and France and USA’s collaborative Two of Us. The contenders in this category cannot be nominated in the other categories.
In December 2020, Globes had announced that the American film Minari was shifted from the Best Picture category on the grounds that the film had allegedly failed to meet the language criteria of having over 50% of its dialogue in English. The story revolves around a Korean family that relocates to America to pursue the ‘American dream’.
The HFPA also announced that veteran actor Jane Fonda will be felicitated with the Cecil B deMille Award, Norman Lear will be presented the Carol Burnett Award for his contribution to television, both on and off-screen.
The nominations for the 78th edition were announced virtually by Sex and the City actor Sarah Jessica Parker and filmmaker Taraji P Henson.
While Tina Fey will go live from New York’s Rainbow Room inside NBC’s corporate headquarters, Amy Poehler will be at the Globes’ usual home, Beverly Hilton. Fey and Poehler will be hosting the award ceremony together for the fourth time this year.
India had sent 10 submissions, nine independent films and one in collaboration with the USA, none of which saw a nomination.
When Vijay-starrer Master released in cinema halls, it came as a ray of hope for the otherwise gloomy theatres and cinema halls in Tamil Nadu, which were counting losses.
Weeks later however, it was announced that the film will stream on Amazon Prime Video from January 29, 15 days after its release in theatres, which is a record short time for a film to launch on an OTT platform while it is still running in theatres.
On December 2020, Vijay visited Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami requesting 100% occupancy in theatres in Tamil Nadu, ahead of Master‘s release.
Members of the Tamil Nadu Theatres association, who had made a representation to the state government for full seating capacity in theatres ahead of Master‘s release feel they have been dealt a blow with the film’s release on Amazon Prime Video. Trade analysts say the ‘Master model’ may bring a paradigm shift in the South Indian film industries by “blurring the lines” between OTT and theatrical release.
As the window between theatre and OTT platform release continues to shorten, Silverscreen India tries to understand the future of film releases in South India.
Woes of the big screens
“It is a big disadvantage for us and we are not accepting this. When a film is both on digital platforms and theatre, which one will the audience prefer? We will shortly have our next meeting where we will decide the actual release date and time duration for the digital premiere. A window of 30-50 days is currently expected,” Srither S, joint secretary of Tamil Nadu Theatres Association told Silverscreen India.
Echoing his thoughts, Tiruppur Subramaniam, Tamil Nadu Theatres and Multiplexes Owners Association president said, “We have requested for it to be streamed after 50 days and despite that they have streamed it. We will discuss this in the future and make a decision regarding this. They said that they will consider it.”
On Wednesday, Telangana theatre owners demanded that the window period for releasing films on OTT platforms after their theatrical release should be kept at six weeks for big budget films and four weeks for smaller films. They have threatened to shut cinema halls if producers do not agree.
It was recently announced that Telugu film Krack, starring Ravi Teja and Shruti Haasan that released in theatres on January 9, will soon stream on Aha Video.
Credits: Silverscreen Media Library
Sreedhar Pillai, entertainment industry tracker and writer, however feels that the duration maintained by Master’s producers was sufficient.
“For a big film like Master, under the present circumstances, two weeks of the window is enough. The window of release will come down further. Theatre owners should be happy that they started off with Master. In northern India, they don’t have content or big hero films. Madam Chief Minister kind of films will not be watched on screens. Here, Master has revived the theatre industry. The producer is releasing it on a streaming app to revive his money,” he said.
While a film starring an established actor like Vijay ran for two weeks before being available online, for smaller actors this window will be much shorter, Pillai said.
He said that the theatrical shelf life has reduced due to the Covid-19 pandemic and technology played a part.
“It is a paradigm shift and we need to see if the window of two weeks comes down further. I think theatres and OTT platforms have to coexist. Even in Hollywood, films are released on OTT platforms and theatres simultaneously. I think there should be at least a two-week window because theatres are part of culture, it is where the mass fan base and common man can meet and afford, but OTT platforms are also taking off where new plans are being introduced in data plans. Theatres will survive because India still has got audiences to watch films in big screen,” Pillai said.
Trade analyst Taran Adarsh said that producers sell rights to digital platforms to recover their investment. When OTT platforms offer a premium rate within two-three weeks of a theatrical release, they feel justified, Adarsh said.
Producers optimistic about theatres
Meanwhile, producers opting for theatrical releases say that the patronage to cinema halls can be increased when audiences return to the big screens, which will revive the film industry.
Producer Dhananjayan G, who produced the Tamil film Kabadadaari that released on January 28 in theatres, said, “It is wrong as a film producer to speak about this trend as it is against theatre owners. I am focusing on my film Kabadadaari at the moment.”
Saying that 100% seating capacity is required only for big-budget films, he said: “We have to look at this from the audience’s comfort point of view, whether they are watching films without fear. The industry is reviving and we are not looking at how much a film collects but people’s willingness to come to theatres. If it can run for two weeks and collect a lot of money, we will still be happy.”
Eeswaran’s producer Balaji Kapa of Madhav Media, who retracted his decision to stream the film simultaneously in theatres and OTT platforms, believes that the situation will become better when more good content is available.
“We released the film on OTT only in abroad and it is running in theatres in India. With 50% occupancy, there has not been good collection and in Tamil Nadu, the government has not given subsidies in entertainment tax. Since there is no profit margin, producers are opting for OTT releases,” he said.
The advent of OTT platforms
The entertainment industry was severely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown as it brought upon distress to cinema halls that remained shut for major portions of 2020. This, however, came as a blessing for streaming apps like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, and they provided an array of content for people stuck at their homes.
Credits: Silverscreen Media Library
Speaking about how the pandemic paved way for the popularity of streaming apps, Pillai said, “Covid-19 has brought the change. This time, last year, no one could imagine the power of OTT platforms on Tamil cinema because Tamil films had the best theatrel-going audience in India. Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh produce a significant volume of films which have a huge fan base. People in these states are crazy about cinema because of its larger-than-life quality which is why they were forced to subscribe to streaming apps during the lockdown.”
With the release of big-budget films like Soorarai Pottru and Mookuthi Amman, OTT platforms gained popularity, he said. Although cinema halls opened later in 2020, the 50% seating limit and the strong presence of these apps slowly lowered the revenue of cinema halls, Pillai said.
Talking about the variety of content available on streaming apps, Adarsh said that these apps allow audiences to watch small-budget films, which usually get sidelined when a big-budget film releases. He said that a parallel industry making content for OTTs was a healthy trend.
“It is also evident in Hollywood and if it is healthy, then why not? OTTs will have its way but the magic of big screen can never be replaced despite road blocks. But both theatres and OTT platforms will co-exist,” he said.
A day before Krack was set to stream on Aha, its CEO Ajit Thakur said in a statement on Thursday: “We are glad to welcome 2021 by bringing one of the biggest releases post pandemic for our audiences. The movie received incredible reviews from everyone and features the biggest stars of the industry – Ravi Teja and Shruti Haasan. Offering it for streaming will help us strengthen our library and reach out to audiences across the Telugu diaspora, including the tier 2 and 3 markets.”
The statement added that the platform’s user base has grown over 24.5 million in the Telugu entertainment genre, and was downloaded 8 million times since its inception in February 2020.
OTTs, safe fall back for producers and assures wider reach, but only for big stars?
“Theatres need big stars, as proven by Vijay’s Master. For upcoming stars, we will still need to test the waters to see if people come to theatres to watch the film. But even OTT platforms do not pick small films,” Pillai said.
While he felt that theatres help films with smaller budgets and with lesser known actors, he said an order must be followed when releasing commercial Tamil films- theatres, OTT platform, television.
Balaji said that OTT platforms are unable to give audiences the experience of watching it on the big screen.
“In Tamil Nadu, there is a chance for anyone to make good films. There is no nepotism here, but in OTT releases, the platform will dominate the film. Theatres give a lease of life for newcomers and debutant filmmakers,” he said.
For film journalist Manikandan, Master came as a ray of hope to the gloomy entertainment industry. “For OTT films, they have profit margin fixed. In theatrical releases, the amount of money, time, efforts are more and returns are far, far greater. In theatres, you don’t know the number of screens it will run in. Successful films run for a year and more the time, more revenue is yielded. In OTT, the price is fixed when the platform buys, how it performs is irrelevant. A movie can be good, but filmmakers will get a marginal sum. There is no scope of seeing profit per se. Films made for theatres being released in OTT is sad thing,” he said.
Manikandan said while filmmaking is a lucrative business, for every two films that succeed there are 10 that fail. In OTT business model, even the failures offer some hope for the makers and they will get a guaranteed minimum amount, thereby not making it an outright loss.
Calling the Covid-19 pandemic a “very disturbing phase”, Adarsh said that producers who had a stock of completed films during the lockdown opted for an OTT release to save themselves from losses.
“We are going back to normal, people are coming to watch films at theatres. At the same time, once the film goes to an OTT platform, people who could not come to theatres can watch it. So, we are reaching all audiences and it is a positive sign. The minimum window should be around one month,” he said.
Stating that the competition between different formats of content should be healthier, he sad that if the content is good, it can be shown anywhere.
“OTT platforms will help people watch when they can’t visit the cinemas or want wider content formats. As a filmmaker, I feel OTT releases will help reach wider households and both theatres and streaming platforms should co-exist,” he said.
What about silver, golden jubilees?
With the availability of different formats of content (web series, films, anthologies, documentaries, etc.), experts feel that a film’s shelf life is reducing due to limited attention span.
According to Manikandan, the shelf life of films has changed over time and marketing strategy has changed since then. Citing the example of Rajinikanth-starrer Enthiran (2010), he said: “What they could not achieve horizontally, they tried achieving vertically which is to say, if you cannot make people to come and watch 365 shows, they released in 365 screens. Time period has become shorter but screens increased. So, the number of screens films releasing gave them leverage.”
With the kind of competition now, there is little chance of films running for 100 days since the audience’s attention span and patience have decreased, he said.
Manikandan said that while previously, filmmaking was a specialised craft where people believed in using proper equipment, with the advent of mobile phones and short video platforms, it has become easier to make videos. “Now they use the craft to make many videos and thus content with more variety comes.”
Stating that films celebrating silver and golden jubilees belong to another era, Adarsh said: “In those days, we had limited screens and shows, but today, with screens so many, once you make a decent money, it is also a success.”
Srither said that previously, films were screened only in 100 theatres or so, and hence were measured with a number of days it ran successfully but situations are not the same anymore.
Theatres or OTT platforms- who gets the lion’s share?
With many films opting for both theatrical and OTT releases, which one wins?
Manikandan said that since the pandemic is still ongoing, it is difficult to predict who wins.
“The current landscape is dynamic and fluid because last year was a complete washout. Even before when films released together, they had competition in terms of screen space. In that situation, last year, the number of films waiting for release is too many in addition to films waiting for 2021 release with limited screens, we have still not seen the last of the pandemic to see the theatres running as normal. Only after that, we will know how the crowd will react, by coming to theatres or see on the OTT market. Until then, it cannot be predicted correctly.”
However, the joy of cinema is watching it on the big screen, said Manikandan. “In Tamil Nadu, it was a tradition during the festive season to go to theatres for new releases and it has become part of system, which has been shaken due to pandemic. Though OTT viewing is economically cheaper, would you have the cinematic experience? It is toss between price and experience.”
Bairavaa First Day Show Celebration At Kasi Theatre; Credits: Silverscreen Media Library
He said that the OTTs have eaten a share of the theatre market and whether theatres will be able to reclaim it remains to be seen. Stating that films like Master will draw loyal followers, he said that only time can tell whether the entire fanbase can be drawn back to theatres.
So far, theatres have been getting the major share of revenue since OTTs are usually subscribed to urban areas.
“Tier-2 cities do not have a technology storm, so will they prefer to watch films on OTT platforms or theatres? We need to wait and watch. But, one thing that can be said is theatres were ruling the market until now, but now OTT platforms have eaten a bit of their share,” Manikandan added.
Experts feel that both sides should sit down to talk.
“I feel that producers and stakeholders should sit and discuss transparently theatrical releases, window, and OTT premiere. Otherwise, there would be negativity and heartburn,” Adarsh said.
Several attempts to reach Master‘s producers, Amazon Prime Video and Aha Video did not yield any response.
The Karnataka government on Wednesday allowed 100% seating capacity in cinema halls for the next four weeks from Thursday.
The decision was taken after a meeting was held between Health and Family Welfare minister K Sudhakar, Information and Public Relations minister CC Patil, members of the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce, members of the film fraternity, and members of the state Technical Advisory Committee.
While speaking at a press conference, Sudhakar said that the situation will be reviewed after four weeks.
The decision came after Kannada film industry members protested on social media against the state government’s decision to continue with the 50% seating capacity, despite the Central government permitting 100% occupancy from February 1.
“In the meeting, we discussed some of the concerns the film industry raised. More than one lakh people in the (Kannada) film industry have been affected by the pandemic,” said Sudhakar.
Kannada actor Shivarajkumar, who had earlier shared a video on Twitter requesting the government for full occupancy, thanked the state government on behalf of the film industry at the press conference.
“During the meeting, we tried to understand both sides of the issue. There are reasons why the state government recommended 50% seating capacity and there are reasons why we asked for 100% seating capacity,” he said.
On January 30, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting increased the seating capacity in cinema halls across the country to 100%. In the circular, the government guidelines included ensuring six feet distancing, usage of masks, availability of sanitisers and sanitisation of premises, thermal screenings, allowance of longer intervals, complete digital booking system, among other detailed guidelines.
In the circular issued by Karnataka, while the state government allowed full seating capacity in hotels and restaurants, they decided to stick to 50% seating capacity “considering the possible second wave of Covid-19”.
Members of the Kannada film fraternity took to social media to demand full seating capacity in Karnataka a day after the state government’s announcement on cinema halls in the state operating at 50% seating capacity till February 28. KGF director Prashanth Neel, Raajakumara star Puneeth Rajkumar, actor-producer Shiva Rajkumar, actor and filmmaker Rakshit Shetty, executive producer of Hombale Films Karthik Gowda, and actor Raam have been tweeting with #KFIDemandsFullOccupancy on Twitter.
AR Rahman, the renowned music composer, will compose music for an upcoming Tamil film that will be helmed by filmmaker Gautham Vasudev Menon starring Silambarasan, Menon announced on social media on Wednesday.
The untitled project will mark the third collaboration of the trio, who have previously worked in the Tamil romantic film Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa in 2010 and romantic action film Achcham Yenbadhu Madamaiyadain 2016. Menon and Silambarasan have previously worked together on Karthik Dial Seytha Yenn, a short film and epilogue of Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa that released in 2020.
The project will be backed by producer Ishari K Ganesh, under the banner of Vels Film International. The rest of the cast and crew is yet to be announced.
When Silverscreen India contacted Menon last week, he said that it was “too early” to reveal any details of the project.
Menon is also working on two other projects for Vels Film International- the upcoming Tamil action thriller film Joshua Imai Pol Kaakha and Tamil romantic anthology Kutti Love Story, that is set to release theatrically on February 12.
Speaking to Silverscreen India about the upcoming untitled film, Vels Film International’s accountant Jyothi said, “So far, we have booked only the hero and music composer. We have not fixed anything else. We have a film going on with GVM sir [Menon] called Joshua [Joshua Imai Pol Kaakha] which is planned to be wrapped up by this weekend. We also have another film called Kutti Love Story that will release next week. After that, we will begin the post-production work of Joshua, following which GVM sir will concentrate on this project.”
Earlier, Jyothi had told Silverscreen India that the team had planned to commence the shooting of the Silambarasan-starrer film by end of February or the first week of March.
Meanwhile, Rahman, who was recently appointed by The British Academy of Film and Television Arts as the BAFTA Breakthrough India 2020-2021 ambassador, unveiled Maajja, an initiative that provides a platform for independent musicians to release and distribute their music without retaining the rights of their creative output.
Noah Centineo, the American actor best known for Netflix’s American teen romantic comedy film To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, will be playing the lead in an upcoming Netflix project based on the recent skyrocketing stock prices of video game company GameStop, Deadline reported.
According to the report, Netflix is in talks with Oscar-winning screenwriter Mark Boal, the American journalist, screenwriter and producer known for the 2012 American thriller Zero Dark Thirty.
Scott Galloway, the New York University professor, journalist, author and tech expert will also be working on the script of the film, the report mentioned.
Makeready founder and CEO Brad Weston will produce the untitled film with Definition Entertainment’s Nick Styne, while Mark Sourian will be the executive producer.
While Netflix did not comment on the news, the report mentioned that sources said that the motive is to utilise the GameStop episode to focus on the anomaly of how social media has “levelled the playing field and allowed the masses to challenge status quo gatekeepers, for good and bad”.
The report said that news about the film broke following Deadline’s report on Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM) acquiring the rights to New York Times best-selling author Ben Mezrich’s book proposal The Antisocial Network, which chronicles the recent Wall Street-GameStop saga. The project will mark the second collaboration of MGM’s Michael DeLuca with Mezrich, author of Genius and Betrayal, which was adapted into the Academy Award-winning film The Social Network.
The retailer’s stock price of video game GameStop has seen an increase of around 2,000% since the beginning of January, which had been as low as $4. On January 28, it reached a shocking high of 135% in a single day, which later came to be known as contributions of some Reddit users who worked together shoot up their price at the expense of hedge fund managers.
Viraata Parvam, the upcoming Telugu film starring Rana Daggubati and Sai Pallavi that will release on April 30, will be available on Netflix after its theatrical release, director Venu Udugula told Silverscreen India.
Based on the Naxal movements in Telangana in the 90s, Viraata Parvam “has strong emotional content”, Udugula said.
The director, who has also written the film, said he felt the country’s prevailing political climate was the correct time to make this film. He said he is a sympathiser of Naxalism” and a “bit of a Marxist” as well.
“It is a pure love story but there is a strong political commentary in a Naxal backdrop and the issues during the time like human rights violation, state violence, and other political issues,” he said.
Refusing to divulge details on the events that the film focuses on, Udugula told Silverscreen India that the film was based on real events.
“Not just one, but the film will showcase three-to-four real life and prominent incidents clubbed together. These incidents that we have chosen to showcase have had a very important effect on the Naxal movements,” he said.
In Viraata Parvam, Sai Pallavi will be seen playing a student named Vennela, while Daggubati will be seen as a Naxalite named Comrade Ravanna.
Udugula rubbished rumours of Sai Pallavi’s character being inspired by the folk singer Belli Lalitha.
Sai Pallavi At The ‘NGK’ Audio & Trailer Launch
The film also has four other prominent roles which will be portrayed by Priyamani, Nandita Das, Zareena Wahab, and Eswari Rao.
“This film is a tribute to women. Nandita Das is playing the character of a human rights activist and a writer. Zarina Wahab is playing Rana Daggubati’s mother but her part is not only a simple “mother” character. Wahab will be seen as a representative of all those mothers who are a part of Naxalism. Sai Pallavi’s Vennela character is a student while Eswari Rao will be seen as Sai’s mother. Priyamani will be seen as a Naxalite. So, all important characters are being played by women in this film,” Udugula said.
Viraata Parvam will mark Das’ comeback in Telugu films after several years.
“She [Nandita Das] was shocked when we approached her. She was like ‘why do you want to cast me? I don’t act anymore, I am a director now’. But I requested her to check the story and decide. After reading it she immediately said okay to the film. The character is such that I did not want commercial artists. I needed some cult faces and Nandita Das was exactly that,” said Udugula.
Currently, the film is in the dubbing stage, he said.
Viraata Parvam is produced by Suresh Productions and Sri Lakshmi Venkateswara Cinemas. While Dani Sanchez-Lopez is the cinematographer, Suresh Bobbili has composed the film’s music.
The Golden Globe Awards, conducted by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), will be held bi-coastally, from the east and west ends of the USA, the association announced on Tuesday, reported AP News. The award ceremony will take place on February 28.
According to CNet, the virtual ceremony will be broadcast live from The Beverly Hilton, in Beverly Hills, California, on NBC channel.
While Tina Fey will go live from New York’s Rainbow Room inside NBC’s corporate headquarters, Amy Poehler will be at the Globes’ usual home, Beverly Hilton. Fey and Poehler will be hosting the award ceremony together for the fourth time this year.
Shyam Madiraju’s Harami has been sent by India in collaboration with the USA in the foreign language film category.
Unlike the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes does not have a limit on the number of submissions per country.
Owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, the HFPA tweaked its eligibility policy for foreign language and English language films by extending the release dates of the films needed to qualify, from December 2020 to February 2021. A film will qualify only if its release date falls between October 1, 2019 to February 28, 2021, since the awards were postponed by two months.
In December 2020, the HFPA was criticised after a report from Variety revealed that several film categories had been shuffled around, including that of the American film Minari, which had been moved from the Best Picture category to the Best Foreign Film category.
According to the eligibility rules, any film with 50% of non-English dialogue is eligible for the foreign film category, making the film ineligible to win the Best Musical or Comedy or Drama award.
Ramin Bahrani, the Iranian-American filmmaker whose latest directorial The White Tiger premiered on Netflix last month, will direct the film adaptation of author Aravind Adiga’s latest novel Amnesty for Netflix, the streaming giant announced on Tuesday.
The Amnesty adaptation will be produced by Bahrani under Noruz Films banner along with Bahareh Azimi and Ashok Amritraj for Hyde Park Entertainment. The screenplay will be written by Bahrani.
“Amnesty, my most personal novel, evolved in the course of discussions with Ramin over many years. It’s my attempt to dramatise the moral crisis at the centre of the story that is faced in various forms by immigrants around the world. I can’t wait to see Ramin’s interpretation on Netflix,” Adiga said in a press release.
Bahrani said, “I am thrilled to adapt Aravind’s great new novel Amnesty. I’m very grateful to partner with Netflix and my lead creative producer Bahareh Azimi once again. This novel gripped me from the first time Aravind shared a rough draft with me five years ago. I can’t wait to bring it to the screen.”
Amnesty is set in Australia and follows Danny, an illegal immigrant and a native of Sri Lanka, who cleans houses in Sydney. After one of his employers is murdered suddenly, he gains a piece of crucial information regarding the suspected killer. As Danny plays a “cat-and-mouse game” with the suspected man, he ends up in a “moral crisis” to either speak up or get deported.
Bahrani’s The White Tiger was based on Adiga’s debut novel by the same name that was The New York Times bestseller. The novel won the Man Booker Prize in 2008. Starring Rajkummar Rao, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, and Adarsh Gourav, the film is based on a poor chauffeur called Balram Halwai and explores themes of corruption, poverty, caste, loyalty, and class divide in India.
Writing With Fire, the Indian documentary film, won the Audience Award and the Special Jury Award in the World Cinema Documentary category at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival.
The film festival was held virtually this year from January 28 to February 3.
Writing With Fire and Ajitpal Singh’s Fire in the Mountains (which competed in the Dramatic Film category) were the two Indian films that made it to the festival this year.
Writing With Fire, directed by Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh, revolves around a team of Dalit women reporters who launch India’s sole Dalit women-run newspaper in a news landscape dominated by men. Chief reporter Meera and her team break tradition to redefine what it means to be powerful, on the news frontlines and in their own homes.
Other films that took home several awards include CODA, Summer of Soul, Hive and Flee.
Sian Heder’s CODA won four awards- the Grand Jury Award, the Audience Award, the Special Jury Award, and the Directing Award, all in the U.S. Dramatic Film category. An acronym for Children of Deaf Adults, the American film was also Sundance’s record-breaking acquisition that saw Apple+ TV buy its worldwide rights for $25 million. The story revolves around a high-school senior, who is the only hearing member in her deaf family and her choice when she’s torn between her family’s business that stands threatened and her passion for music.
Blerta Basholli’s Hive, the collaborative project of Kosovo, Switzerland, Macedonia, and Albania won the Grand Jury Prize, the Audience Award and the Directing Award in the World Cinema Dramatic category.
Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s Summer of Soul won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award, both in the U.S. Dramatic category.
Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s Flee won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize in Documentary category.
Marion Hill’s for Ma Belle, My Beauty was awarded the NEXT title, presented by Adobe.
The Waldo Screenwriting Award was presented to Ari Katcher and Ryan Welch for their American feature film On the Count of Three. Sundance introduced the Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award in the U.S. Documentary category this year with Kristina Motwani and Rebecca Adorno winning the prize for their documentary film Homeroom. The award is dedicated to the late editor.
Hogir Hirori won the Directing Award in the World Cinema Documenatry category for the Swedish film Sabaya.
This year’s feature film jury comprised Julie Dash, Cynthia Erivo, Hanya Yanagihara, Ashley Clark, Joshua Oppenheimer, Lana Wilson, Zeynep Atakan, Isaac Julien, Daniela Vega, Kim Longinotto, Mohamed Saïd Ouma, and Jean Tsien. Kate and Laura Mulleavyserved as co-jurors for NEXT. Shorts jurors were Raúl Castillo, Tacita Dean and Inge de Leeuw.
Owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, the festival, curated by the Sundance Institute, could not be held at the traditional venue of Park City in Utah. Instead, it was brought online, through satellite screenings partnering with drive-in theatres across the US.
“This was not a ‘virtual’ festival, it was a real festival and the power of these artists and their work was what made it so. It has been a privilege to help this work meet new audiences and enter the culture with such fanfare, especially now, when breaking through the noise is harder than ever,” Sundance Film Festival Director Tabitha Jackson said in a statement.
A total of 73 films entered for the six-day festival.
Sundance Institute CEO Keri Putnam said, “This has been a singular festival for a singular moment. Watching people come together to connect and discuss exciting new work has been incredibly rewarding – and a resounding confirmation that great independent storytelling inspires rich conversation.”
Members of the Kannada film fraternity took to social media to demand full seating capacity in Karnataka a day after the state government announced that all cinema halls in the state will continue to operate at 50% seating capacity till February 28.
Celebrities, including KGF director Prashanth Neel, Raajakumara star Puneeth Rajkumar, actor-producer Shiva Rajkumar, actor and filmmaker Rakshit Shetty, executive producer of Hombale Films Karthik Gowda, and actor Raam have been tweeting with #KFIDemandsFullOccupancy on Twitter.
Rajkumar tweeted “When private functions, places of worship, public transport, markets, tourist places are allowed to operate normally, Why not MOVIE THEATRES !?”.
Echoing him, Prashanth Neel tweeted: “While cinema is entertainment to most, it’s lifeline to many.”
While every other public area continues to bustle with people, Karnataka has once again limited the theatre occupancy to 50%. Why? Are we forgetting that cinema is a means of livelihood for many across the state!#KFIDemandsFullOccupancy@drashwathcn@CMofKarnataka@mla_sudhakar
On January 30, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting increased the seating capacity in all cinema halls across the country to 100%. In the circular, the government guidelines included ensuring six feet distancing, usage of masks, availability of sanitisers and sanitisation of premises, thermal screenings, allowance of longer intervals, complete digital booking system, among other detailed guidelines.
In the new circular issued by the Karnataka government, while the state government has allowed full seating capacity in hotels and restaurants, they have decided to stick to 50% seating capacity “considering the possible second wave of Covid-19”.
“However, after reviewing the current scenario of COVID-19 and also considering the possible second wave of COVID-19, it has been decided that as a matter of abundant precaution and in the larger interest of public health 50% capacity of seating in cinema halls shall continue till 28th of February 2021,” the circular stated.
In October 2020, soon after the Central government’s orders on reopening theatres with 50% occupancy, the Karnataka Film Exhibitors’ Federation announced their decision not to reopen theatres in Karnataka until January 2021. This divided the film fraternity as the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) said that while most single-screen theatres remained shut, multiplexes would continue to function.
Earlier, KFCC president DR Jairaj had told Silverscreen India: “No big star movies are opening because of protocols like 50% occupancy. Once it becomes 100% or 75% occupancy, it will be fine. By end of this month or November [2020], things should go back to normal.”
Kannada films slated to release in February include Inspector Vikram, Shadow, Manjra, Mangalavara Rajaadina, Kanasu Maratakkide, Chakra, Pogaru, Cyanide Mallika, and Salt.
Though the Centre’s guidelines came into effect from February 1, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal had already begun functioning at 100% capacity since January.
Cast: STR, Kalyani Priyadarshan, S. A. Chandrasekhar, SJ Suryah, Premgi Amaren, Karunakaran
Written & Directed – Venkat Prabhu
Producer – Suresh Kamatchi
Music Director – Yuvan Shankar Raja
Director Of Photography – Richard M Nathan
Editor – Praveen KL
Art Director – Umesh J Kumar
Action Director – Stunt Silva
Costume Designer – Vasuki Bhaskar
Lyrics – Madhan Karky
Choreography – Raju Sundaram
Audiography – T. Udayakumar
Production Controller – Subramanian Narayanan
VFX – Harihara Suthan
Promo Stills – Sudharshan
Stills – Mohan
PRO – A. John
Publicity Design – Tuney John / 24AM
Banner : V House Productions
Direction Team:
A. N. Pitchumani | Veer Ramakrishnan | R. Thirunavukkarasu | Sasikumar Paramasivan | Palanivel Ariyaputhri | Vivek Kumar | T. Suresh Kumar | OPT Vinoth Kumar | Karthiick Saravanan
Cinematography Team:
Kedarnath S | K.V.Pavithran | Vivekanandhan.T.V
Ilaiyaraaja, the renowned music composer, will record his first song in his new studio on Wednesday. The new recording theatre, located in Kodambakkam in Chennai, was built after renovating MM Preview Theatre.
The music maestro will be composing for the upcoming Tamil film that will be helmed by filmmaker Vetrimaaran with actor and comedian Soori in the lead and actor Vijay Sethupathi playing a significant role in the film, a source told Silverscreen India.
The new recording studio comes after the musician vacated his chambers in Prasad Studios on December 28, 2020 following the Madras High Court’s permission to Ilaiyaraaja to retrieve his belongings. The court gave the permission after a long tussle over the musician’s recording studio and chamber, which was tampered with by the management. The chamber in the studio contained several of Ilaiyaraaja’s photos and his Padma Bhushan award.
The feud between Ilaiyaraaja and Prasad Studios began in September 2019 after Sai Prasad, the grandson of the studio’s founder LV Prasad, took over the studio. In July 2020, Ilaiyaraaja filed a complaint against Sai Prasad for “tampering with his musical instruments, notes and valuables” and for threatening to cut electricity, water, and other supplies. Prasad Studios had denied Ilaiyaraaja’s entry into the premises if his intention was to compose music.
Ilaiyaraaja had also filed a complaint after he was denied access to Prasad Studios, citing renovation work. He moved the Madras high Court to stop the owners from interfering with his use of a recording theatre and also demanded Rs 50 lakh as compensation for the mental agony caused to him due to the forcible eviction.
Addressing the media, Ilaiyaraaja said, “As everyone knows, after leaving Prasad Studios, I was in need of a recording theatre. Hence, I bought this place and started to renovate it. It was inaugurated today (Wednesday) with a puja. Since there are some renovation works going on still, it will start to fully function from February 7-8.”
Credits: Diamond Babu
Vetrimaaran’s untitled film is based on a short story titledThunaivan written by Tamil and Malayalam writer Bahulehan Jeyamohan. The story was published in the Tamil weekly magazine Ananda Vikatan in 1992.
The shooting began in December 2020 and is expected to complete by this February. The team had taken a break for the Pongal festival and had resumed shooting in January in the Sathyamangalam forest area in Erode, Tamil Nadu.
The film will mark the first collaboration between Sethupathi and Vetrimaaran. Sethupathi was supposed to play a pivotal role in Vetrimaaran’s 2018 Tamil action crime film Vada Chennai (starring Dhanush) but opted out due to other commitments.
The film is Ilaiyaraaja’s first collaboration with Vetrimaaran. The rest of the cast and crew members are yet to announced.
Con Todo, Netflix’s social media community for “Spanglish” content, announced the film on Twitter and wrote that The Mother narrates the story of “a deadly female assassin who comes out of hiding to protect the daughter that she gave up years before, while on the run from dangerous men”.
Misha Green, who is best known for the American horror drama series Lovecraft Country (2020), is writing the screenplay for The Mother with revisions by Andrea Berloff (best known for the 2015 biographical drama Straight Outta Compton), according to a report by the Deadline.
The report also mentioned that Niki Caro, the director and screenwriter who is best known for the 2020 animated Disney film Mulan, is in talks to direct The Mother.
Lopez is co-producing The Mother along with Elaine Goldsmith Thomas, under the banner of Nuyorican Productions, Benny Medina, Roy Lee and Miri Yoon, under the Vertigo Entertainment banners, as well as Green. Catherine Hagedorn is the executive producer with Courtney Baxter is the film’s associate producer.
Lopez had recently announced that she will be starring in and producing another upcoming Netflix film, which is an adaptation of the 2020 Isabella Maldonado novel The Cipher. Lopez will play an FBI agent Nina Guerrera in the film, who is “pulled into a serial killer’s case after he leaves complex codes and riddles online, which are linked to his recent murders”.
Lopez will also be starring in Marry Me, a romantic comedy film which will also see Lopez in the producer’s chair. The film, which is in the post-production phase, will release in theatres on May 14.
El Cantante, a 2006 biographical film, was the first film which Lopez produced besides acting in it.
Dustin Diamond, the American television actor who played Screech in the sit-com franchise Saved by the Bell, died of lung cancer on Monday. He was 44.
The actor was diagnosed with the disease three weeks ago and was admitted to a hospital in Florida where he died.
“In that time, it managed to spread rapidly throughout his system; the only mercy it exhibited was its sharp and swift execution. Dustin did not suffer. He did not have to lie submerged in pain. For that, we are grateful,” the late actor’s manager Roger Paul said in a statement.
Diamond got his big break in Good Morning, Miss Bliss, the first season in the Saved by the Bell series that aired from 1988 to 1989 in which he portrayed the role of the geek Samuel “Screech” Powers in 13 episodes. The four-season series went on till 1993, after which it was revived with its spin-off series, Saved by the Bell: The College Years, from 1993 to 1994, and Saved by the Bell: The New Class, which started the same year and went on till 2000.
Prior to Screech becoming a household name in 1987, Diamond made an appearance in an episode each of the television film Yogi’s Great Escape and It’s a Living.
The late actor appeared on a variety of shows such as Celebrity Fit Club, The Weakest Link, and Celebrity Boxing 2. He also made cameo appearances in films like Made, Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, American Pie Presents: The Book of Love, and others.
In 2006, he featured in an infamous sex tape titled Screeched: Saved by the Smell. However, the late actor later agreed on Oprah Winfrey’s show Where are they Now? in 2013 that he was “embarassed” and that it was his “stupidity” that made him do it, although he did clarify that he had used a stunt double and was not a part of the video. He said, “I definitely got some money off of it but it wasn’t worth what the fall out was.”
Diamond had also shared that after Screech, he was unable to get work “that wasn’t Screech kind of stuff,” adding, “As I matured I realised, wow, I was kind of going through my rebellious teens in my twenties.” He had played Screech on-screen for 12 years.
In 2014, he was arrested for stabbing a man during a bar fight. He was arrested again in 2016 for violating the terms of his probation.
“We are aware that Dustin is not considered reputable by most. He’s had a history of mishaps, of unfortunate events. We want the public to understand that he was not intentionally malevolent,” Paul said.
“He — much like the rest of those who act out and behave poorly — had undergone a great deal of turmoil and heartache. His actions, though rebukeable, stemmed from loss and the lack of knowledge on how to process that pain properly. In actuality, Dustin was a humorous and high-spirited individual whose greatest passion was to make others laugh. He was able to sense and feel other peoples’ emotions to such a length that he was able to feel them too — a strength and a flaw, all in one,” Paul added.
He was married to Jennifer Wisner in 2009 and the two separated in 2013.
PS Nivas, the renowned cinematographer and filmmaker who had worked in Tamil, Malayalam, and Hindi films, died of cancer in Calicut on Monday.
He was 75.
A winner of the National Award for the Best Cinematography in the Malayalam film Mohiniyaattam (1976), Nivas was born in Calicut and moved to Chennai to pursue motion picture photography from the Institute of Film Technology. After debuting as the assistant cinematographer in the Malayalam film Kuttyedathi (1971), his first film as the main cinematographer was in the Malayalam film Sathyathinte Nizhalil (1975).
Nivas then forayed into Tamil films, debuting in veteran filmmaker Bharathiraja’s 16 Vayathinile in 1977. The duo went on to collaborate in several films, including Kizhake Pogum Rail (1978), Sigappu Rojakkal (1978), Solva Sawan (Hindi remake of 16 Vayathinile) (1978), and Puthiya Vaarpugal (1979).
Nivas was known for his techniques like backlighting during outdoor cinematography, low key lighting, and handheld filming.
Poster of ’16 Vayathinile’.
Condoling the death of his cinematographer friend, Bharathiraja wrote on social media, “The great creator who was a part of 16 Vayadhinile, my career’s first film and the five successive victories, the best cinematographer, my friend Nivas’ death has been a huge shock to me. Deepest condolences.”
Filmmaker Sangeeth Sivan tweeted, “Noted Cinematographer/Director/Producer Nivas passes away in Calicut. One of my earliest influencers. Worked in Hindi, Tamil & Malayalam. Best known for his work with Bharatiraja starting with 16vayathinilae omshanti.”
Renowned cinematographer PC Sreeram tweeted, “The man who shot 16 Vayathinile for Bharathiraja & opened up a whole new avenue of visual narration for Indian Cinema, particularly the Tamil film industry – Nivas has left us with a lot to cherish. May his soul rest in peace.”
Speaking to Silverscreen India, cinematographer Vijay Milton said, “He was a hero for us. As a cinematographer, he had introduced trolleys to create lengthy shots and also used zooming while taking such shots. This methodology can be seen in Bharathiraja’s films. Before this, cinematographers either used trolleys to move while filming or used zoom shots as stationary, but he combined both. He zoomed while moving. His tracks laid for filming were as long as 60 feet, while others would only use 10-12 feet. That was the first time I saw such methodology being used. Though I have not seen him personally, his methodology is what comes to mind when his name is mentioned.”
Credits: Southern India Cinematographers’ Association
Cinematographer and filmmaker KV Anand recalled his memories of watching Nivas’ work and said, “In Tamil cinema at that time, it was only the actor, director or music composers’ work that got recognised and appreciated by people. But I remember, when 16 Vayathinile released, I was studying in Class VII, and people talked about Nivas’ cinematography. At that time, most of the films were shot indoors. The team of 16 Vayathinile, however, had travelled all the way to Madurai to shoot. The film was taken in a low budget and Nivas did hand-held cinematography for the film. Though I was not aware of the technicalities back then, I could recognise that it was shot differently.”
Anand said that Nivas became a household name after Tamil magazines mentioned the cinematographer’s work in their reviews.
Nivas had used ORWO films, a type of photographic film produced in erstwhile East Germany, for 16 Vayathinile, said Anand. “It is a cheap quality film, but he used it efficiently.”
Anand said that Nivas was known for his unconventional method of handling the camera. While he can’t recall the famed cinematographer’s physical traits, Anand said he could clearly remember his work. “He did not like publicity. It is his work, his sense of lighting and framing, that stands out.”
Besides cinematography, Nivas had also directed films, including Kallukkul Eeram (1980), Enakkaga Kaathiru (1981), Nizhal Thedum Nenjangal (1982), and Sevvanthi (1994)
The late cinematographer is survived by his wife Shobha, two daughters, Diana Nivas and Dhanisha Nivas, and son Dawn Nivas.
Maura Delpero’s Maternal (2019) is set inside a Buenos Aires Christian convent and a Hogar (home for teenage single mothers), where the discipline of the religious life is in constant friction with the chaotic personalities of the inmates of the institution. The narrative is centred on Sister Paula, a young Italian nun, a new entrant to the convent. She is gentle, radiating a kind of love and compassion that is palpable. She looks content in her faith. When she starts to take care of an abandoned child at the Hogar, the young nun is faced with a flush of complex emotions she finds difficult to process.
Maternal, which has a nearly all-women cast and crew, is a well-acted delicately narrated drama about womanhood and the ambivalences it runs into when it enters the terrain of motherhood. With great poise, the film studies its characters and the space that engulfs them. It doesn’t possess an air of piousness but uses the religion and the rigidity inside the convent as a perfect backdrop for the emotional conflicts in the narrative to unfold.
Delpero’s filmmaking has a lovely austere quality. The teenage single mothers in the convent are always under the supervision of the nuns. In a scene where the girls dance to pop music on a disco floor inside the Hogar, the camera moves to the exterior to reveal the nuns waiting on a bench, overseeing the event. The girls throw a tantrum at the dinner table every day, implying their disregard for the chaste motherliness the nuns insist on holding. For the girls, motherhood is an unfortunate accident that tied them down when they were the most unprepared. For the nuns, it is a chosen way of life.
Lu (Agustina Malale, a fantastic non-professional actor), a teenage mother, is the Hogar’s ‘lost sheep’. Her desire for freedom forms one of the central elements of the narrative. She is hotheaded, a foil to the Hogar’s Christian way of life. In her introductory scene, she is in the washroom, trimming her pubic hair and getting ready for a date with an abusive lover. Her little daughter Nina longs for her to come for a hug every night, but Lu can’t meet the demands of motherhood. She feels alarmed when Paula grows close to Fatima, her roommate, and Nina.
Delpero, who has a background in documentary filmmaking, uses static shot﹣wide and close-ups ﹣interpreting the Christian convent as a constant entity, immune to internal turbulences or the developments in the outside world. In fascinating wide shots of the two-storey building, the film patiently watches the inmates walk in a neat line to the prayer hall every day. In a close-shot that resembles a painting, you see Paula and Nina sleeping on her bed in a tight embrace, a deep sense of calmness on their faces.
Delpero does not dwell on personal histories but uses masterful writing to throw clues on the events that landed the girls in the convent. Although the film has no male characters other than Fatima’s little boy, the effects of patriarchy are omnipresent. The wounds on Lu’s body. References to Fatima’s traumatic past where she was abused by her stepfather and abandoned by her mother. The nuns’ lectures to the children on Jesus, Joseph and the importance of a conventional family model.
While the other nuns are cogs in the church’s machinery, who have to follow the code of conduct, notwithstanding how removed they might be from the context, Paula lets herself be driven by the circumstances. Using her relationship with Nina, Delpero tries to dismantle myths about motherhood and brings the image of a mother closer to the ground where they are no rules but only instincts.
That said, the film doesn’t deviate from the traditional association of sacredness with a beautiful young virgin. It uses close-up shots of Lidiya Liberman’s beautiful face and her tall figure like a shorthand to set her against the everydayness of her older colleagues and the girls.
Towards the end, the film moves away from its objective style for a more dramatic finish. It doesn’t judge the characters or liberate them from the clutches of an unjust world, but take them to a point where they can look one another in the eye and be an ally.
It is its emphasis on humanness that makes Maternal a deeply moving film.
****
Maternal was screened at the 51st International Film Festival of India at Goa.
****
The Maternal review is a Silverscreen original article. It was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the film. Silverscreenindia.com and its writers do not have any commercial relationship with movies that are reviewed on the site.
