In the lead up to the 7th Canadian Film Festival in Australia (August 2012), join us as we countdown the Top 100 Canadian Films of the past 30 years. We'll be posting one film a day leading up to Canada Day on July 1st 2012. Do you agree with our team favourites? Let us know your thoughts!
Water is a moving and disturbing account of life as an Indian widow in 1938, the third edition of the ‘Elements’ trilogy by director Deepa Mehta and by far my favourite of the three films.
Deepa Mehta overcame so many obstacles to get the last film of the trilogy out and I am so glad she did. After the confronting nature of the previous films, Water was met with protests from angry Indian citizens before the crew had even started shooting.
On the first day of scheduled filming, the crew arrived on location to find parts of their set burnt down. Another group of protesters claimed they would arrange a mass suicide if the film was to go ahead. The production was then moved to Sri Lanka and a new non-Indian cast was selected.
This confronting film looks at the devastating consequences of patriarchal religious dogma. It looks at issues of gender inequality in India and the ways in which people have used religion to exploit, manipulate and dominate others.
Water follows the story of Chuyia, a seven year-old girl who becomes widowed after her much older husband dies. Chuyia can hardly remember the marriage, let alone understand the consequences of her husband’s death.
In the 1930s in India, if your husband died, a woman was required to live the rest of her life single and in renunciation of worldly pleasures – forbidden to work, they spend the rest of their life in worship. As a result of Chuyia's husband’s death, she’s forced to move into a rundown ashram, where she’s to spend the rest of her life. Her head is shaved, she’s clothed in a coarse white sari and forbidden to see her family; but Chuyia remains convinced that her family will come for her.
Madhumati, the leader of the ashram, teams up with a pimp on a side business, prostituting some of the girls to men across the river. She mainly calls upon one woman, Kalyani, an attractive young member of the ashram.
Chuyia's integration into the ashram brings laughter and light into Kalyani's life, as the two start spending time together. Chuyia introduces Kalyani to Narayan, an attractive and kind man, who’s a follower of Gandhi. Against a political backdrop of Gandhi’s inroads into women’s rights in India, Kalyani and Narayan fall in love and develop a plan to get Kalyani out of the ashram – but can they break free of the bonds of servitude and tradition?
Water raises some really sad and disturbing issues and generated a hell of a lot of controversy. There are some beautiful scenes, with the backdrop of Sri Lanka making it a very visually attractive piece of cinema. Water is a brave, moving and confronting film, well worth a watch - 4.5 colourful saris from me.
- Adele Moleta
“Water is an exquisite film about the institutionalised oppression of an entire class of women and the way patriarchal imperatives inform religious belief.” Jeannette Catsoulis - New York Times
To see the other films in the countdown so far, click here.