Beautiful movie: "Water" (India, 1938)

[Sequoia]

We got this movie from the library which I watched over the weekend and I was very impressed by the visual beauty and sadness of this story.



When Deepa Mehta first began filming WATER in 2000, angry fundamentalist mobs burned her sets and threatened her life. The Indian government claimed it could not protect her, and the project had to wait four years before finally filming in Sri Lanka. Her film has raised the ire of extremists because it challenges the Hindu customs that dictate that widows, considered half-dead after the loss of their husbands, must be closeted in holy ashrams--a practice that still exists today. Set in the 1930s, the film tells the story of eight-year old Chuyia, whose husband dies before she even meets him. Her parents shave her head and whisk her away to a house of widows where the women sleep on the ground and beg in the streets to earn their puny portion of rice. Chuyia, feisty and resilient, comes into this world like a ray of light, and soon the women are rethinking their mute acceptance of their fate. Her closest friend and ally is the lovely Kalyani, and soon a forbidden romance begins to develop between Kalyani and Narayana, a young Brahmin man who, following the teachings of Gandhi, has denounced injustice.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10005763-water/#synopsis

[IronLionZion]

1. Amazing movie

yup, I discovered it recently when a friend recommended it. I also enjoyed Deepa Mehta's other elements movies: Earth and Fire, and her light-hearted movie: Bollywood/Hollywood.

I'm interested in her new movie she's working on: Heaven on Earth.

[Sequoia]

2. I'll have to look for it.

Water, though...walking barefoot wrapped in sheets. I liked that tree with the huge branches and candles everywhere. Near the end of the moive, even though it was never said or never showed his face, did you think that man in the dark bedroom was the English friend of the lawyer/poet?