Earth1998
Deepa Metha certainly qualifies as a director that needs more love, so I suppose I need to start off my write up by thanking Bondo for making me aware of her work. I was assigned the movie
Earth, from her Elements trilogy (the film is preceded by
Fire and followed by
Water. Despite being a loosely connected trilogy such as GVS's Death trilogy or something like that, I felt like watching them in order so I watched Fire too. Ill be watching
Water within a week or so I suppose. Anyways,
Fire was a promising enough start, but I found
Earth considerably more impressive, most likely because in addition to the circumstances floating around the main characters, the stakes of the overall story just feel so much higher
Earth takes place in 1947, when the British leave India, and the country has to be partitioned. The Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Parsis and Sikhs all have to decide where they stand (I should say here that I apoligize in advance for both mispelling and/or screwing up any historical facts regarding countries, religions or whatever).
The main characters are Lenny, a Parsi girl of about 10 I would guess, and her Hindu caretaker. Lenny's caretaker is very beautiful and the two of them constantly hang out with her friends, a few of whom have a crush on her. All of Ayah's (the caretaker) friends are of different religions. The Parsi's are neutral in the situation, while the Hindus appear to be the most persecuted of all the groups.
Much of the beginning of the movie sets up the overall political climate. I'm glad it was there because the politics are fairly complicated (in truth I'm still a bit confused about a thing or too). The movie really gets good after this though, and Id rather not go into too much detail on the specifics of the plot because it would be quite spoiler filled. I will say that the romantic aspirations of some of the men in Ayah's group, mixed with their opposing cultures, create a hell of an interesting and suspensful rivalry.
The cast is all likeable, and the camera is doing a lot of interesting things, especially near the beginning. During a conversation at the dining room table at the beginning, there is a long take where the camera basically zooms into each person, then backs out to zoom in on the next, all while rotating slowly around the table. Interesting stuff indeed.
Metha does a terrific job putting together the ending, and it really makes the viewer run the entire range of feelings For the final half hour or so you are hit with one emotionally charged scene after another, with the stakes of the story continuing to escalate.
The ending, is one of the most devestating scenes I've scene in a long timeOverall, Im really glad I participated in MDC this month. Metha's movies arent really recommended to me on any movie sites I hang around on, so I probably wouldn't have seen them otherwise. I would highly recommend checking out
Earth if you get the oppurtunity.
4/5