Sexy Durga (IN 2017) / The Nothing Factory (PT 2017)
Oh, the end is drawing near! Today is the last day of this year’s GEGENkino festival and we hope you had some inspiring, insightful and/or intense moments. Thank you all! We’ll close off the festival with two feature films and one short film as part of our programme section “HOW TO RESIST…”: At 6pm at Schaubühne Lindenfels, we’ll screen Sanal Kumar Sasidharan hitchhike/road trip/odyssey film SEXY DURGA, in which “Sasidharan reflects Indian independent cinema’s emerging feminist moment”as some commentators have it. There’ll be an opening film to SEXY DURGA that is JODILERKS DELA CRUZ / EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH by Carlo Francisco Manatad, one of the most interesting young directors from the Philippines, whose film scene seems to really flourish right now. At 8pm then, finishing off our festival, there’ll be a screening of the Portuguese proletarian strike film THE NOTHING FACTORY by Pedro Pinho – another film that, in portraying a group of factory workers’ struggle for the protection of their job and existence, blends fiction film and documentary in very unique way. (Shot on one of our favourite materials: 16mm!) We hope to see you all again today!
Sun 15 April 2018 @ Schaubühne Lindenfels
6 PM SEXY DURGA (IN 2017, D: Sanal Kumar Sasidharan 85’ OV w/ English subtitles) + opening film: JODILERKS DELA CRUZ / EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH (PHL/SGP 2017, D: Carlo Francisco Manatad 13’)
8 PM THE NOTHING FACTORY (PT 2017, D: Pedro Pinho 177’ OV w/ English subtitles)
| Sun 15 April 2018 Schaubühne Lindenfels | HOW TO RESIST… |
| 6 PM | SEXY DURGA (IN 2017 D: Sanal Kumar Sasidharan 85’ OV w/ English subtitles) + opening film: JODILERKS DELA CRUZ / EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH (PHL/SGP 2017 D: Carlo Francisco Manatad 13’1 |
| 8 PM | THE NOTHING FACTORY (PT 2017, D: Pedro Pinho 177’ OV w/ English subtitles) |
SEXY DURGA
IN 2017, D: Sanal Kumar Sasidharan, A: Rajshree Deshpandey, Kannan Nair, Vishnu Vedh, OV with English subtitles, 85’, DCP
At the beginning: white text on black ground. An episode from the epic
poem Ramayana tells the mutilation of the Shurpanakha by Rama’s
half-brother Lakshmana. The black fades out and merges into the feast of
Garudan Thookam in south Indian Kerala, where the bloodthirst of Kali,
an embodiment of the deity Durga, is to be ritually quenched. Bodies are
going into ecstasy, hooks into human skin, masculinity is performed,
mobile phones are filming. Thenchange: a road at night. The young couple
Durga and Kabeer want to get away. She’s a Hindu from the north, he’s a
Muslim from the south. A minibus stops, they get in. SEXY DURGA lets
one experience the attitude and atmosphere out of which sexual violence
could arise in public spaces. Moreover, the attribution of the film’s
title is an affront to religious hardliners. Durga, which is not
associated with a male god, is deeply worshipped in Hinduism. The
eroticised association is provocative, and a figure of that name, which
exposes the mechanisms of patriarchal oppression in a constricting way,
has been the reason for banning the film until recently. Sanal Kumar
Sasidharan deconstructs myths and social dynamics and at it, skillfully
works with expectations and anxieties. The camera is unleashed and free
throughout the film, its two protagonists are trying to follow suit.
Opening Film
JODILERKS DE LA CRUZ
PHL/SGP 2017, D: Carlo Francisco Manatad, A: Angeli Bayani, Ross Pesigan
OV with English subtitles, 13’, DCP
JODILERKS DELA CRUZ (EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH) depicts an evening at a gas station. The last one of an employee who used to be motivated once. Now, there is only the endless and noisy traffi c, from which hardly anyone ever stops. With her arbitrary actions, the protagonist mirrors the society around her. An amusing, wicked potshot of a film.
15 April, 6 pm – Schaubühne Lindenfels – € 6,5 (5,5 red.)
THE NOTHING FACTORY
PT 2017, D: Pedro Pinho, A: José Smith Vargas, Carlo Galvão, Njamy Sebastião, 177’, OV with English subtitles, DCP
In the middle of the night, machine parts are stolen from an elevator factory. Immediately, the workers realize that the administration has planned this act of sabotage in order to elegantly disappear into the void of financial crisis while merely paying miserable severances at the most. Since a strike, especially if there is no work left, would remain ineffective, the workers turn their protest into an occupation, into a struggle for their right to work. At this point, THE NOTHING FACTORY begins its operation. On grainy 16mm material, Pinho stages bleak rooms as still lives. Framed within these, the workers persevere, play football and chess, and of course discuss empowerment and security issues inside of capitalist employment conditions. Gradually, the group thins out: some of them accept the dismal pay-offs offered in uncomfortable one-on-one conversations. Eventually, the bordeom of the hard core ends up in the performance of a peculiar musical choreography. Due to his reflection on Portugal’s socio-political reality, the film is inevitably reminiscent of classical 1970s strike films such as Petri’s THE WORKING CLASS GOES TO HEAVEN or Fassbinder’s miniseries EIGHT HOURS ARE NOT A DAY, yet it does not ever lose its sense of humor. The film’s self-referentiality, its even documentary context constitute its remarkable stance: nearly the entire cast actually does work in factories, a quirky filmmaker follows the action and there really has been a collectively managed elevator factory.
15. April, 18 Uhr – Schaubühne Lindenfels – € 6,5 (5,5 erm.)
