![](/img/wiki_up/world unseen.jpg)
THE WORLD UNSEEN
South Africa/UK, 2008, 94 minutes, Colour.
Lisa Raye, Sheetal Sheth, Parvin Dabas, Nandana Sen, David Dennis, Grethe Fox.
Directed by Shamim Sarif.
In her first film, based on her novel, I Can't Think Straight, writer-director Shamim Sarif used the conventions of soap opera and serials to create a world for her tale of same-sex attraction and love. Her second film is better, even if the central plot is much the same, because it has a South African setting, Cape Town's Indian area in the apartheid of 1952.
The improvement comes with the setting and story but, instead of soap opera influences, she makes her film in the style of the popular telenovellas.
While the apartheid brutality and prejudice is familiar, it is still shocking to see on screen. The descendants of Indian migrants are labelled as coloureds and are not allowed to mix with white people. But, laws of apartheid also apply to them as regards the black population – and some of them are almost as condescending or hostile to them as the whites. Several sub-plot strands show the dangers of a coloured married to a white visiting from Europe and subject to arrest and imprisonment. Imprisonment is also threatened for anyone hiding them or helping them to escape the police. There is a mutual attraction between an elderly coloured restaurateur and the white postmistress that is doomed given the ugly behaviour of some of the police imposing the laws.
The Indian community has its own harsh history, its traditions and expectations for women to marry, stay at home and bring up their children. But, it also has its own difficulties in domestic violence and extra-marital affairs.
However, at the centre of the story is the meeting of a quietly proper coloured woman (Lisa Ray) with an unfaithful and violent husband and three children and a coloured restaurant owner (Sheetal Sheth) who dresses and behaves in a masculine way. It is not quite the same sex relationship as in the previous film. Rather, the wife, though attracted, experiences having her eyes opened to the social confinement in which she lives. The restaurant owner and her love are the catalyst for this.
Much more watchable than the first film and more likely to elicit a more sympathetic audience response.
1.The work of the writer, director, novelist? The memories of her grandparents’ experience in South Africa? The atmosphere of South Africa and its apartheid traditions?
2.The location photography, Capetown, the Indian area, the countryside, the beauty of the landscapes? The restaurant, the homes, shops, post office? Authentic feel?
3.The 1952 look, clothes, music?
4.South Africa and apartheid, the film taking place during the early years? The justice issues? The classifications of people, the whites and their harshness, rude and humiliating behaviour? The post office? The police? The lenient policemen and the harsh policemen? The classifications of: whites, coloureds, blacks? Each group having South Africa as its home, a different heritage?
5.Apartheid as the setting for this family drama? The place of the Indians and coloured peoples in South Africa in the 20th century? The harsh history, the raping of the grandmother, her deportation, separation from her child? The expectations of the Indians? Traditions, marriage, the wife as servile, the dominant grandmothers? Husbands and their violence, submissive wives?
6.The restaurant as a particular setting, the police arriving, their brutal methods, the guns, Jacob and his shielding Madeleine? The blacks and their being ousted? The coloureds and it being an Indian restaurant? Amina and the ownership of the restaurant? Jacob as a silent partner? The background of Amina’s family, Jacob and his marriage? The cooking, the music, the celebrations, meals and customers?
7.The family homes, the crowded house, Omar and Miriam and their moving? The shop? Miriam’s pregnancy, Amina and the house, working in the garden for Omar? Omar and his continually going to Capetown?
8.Relationships, strong marriage, failed marriages, betrayals? Same-sex relationships? In 1952, in apartheid South Africa, the place of women? The reference of the title?
9.The character of Amina, strong, wearing the trousers and hat, masculine style, owning the restaurant, managing it? The police and their reactions? Her work with Jacob? The group, the attraction to Miriam, bringing the desserts? Her own family and its history? Her mother? Omar getting her to make the garden? The driving lessons for Miriam? Her good manner with the children? Her grandmother, the dominance, expectations for marriage, the meals, her changing her clothes, the importance of the woman who married the white man, Amina saving her, hiding her in the closet? Her grandmother’s death – and people blaming her for the heart attack? Miriam’s visit? The car, the kiss, Miriam and her reaction? Amina and her freedom, talking? The job offer for cooking? Resigned to losing Miriam? The final and Miriam coming to work?
10.The character of Miriam, as wife, mother, love for her children, tension with her husband? Pregnant, moving home, her work, the difficulty of the birth, the baby girl, her husband wanting a boy? The children and their going to school? Her husband being away, knowing about his affair? The meal at the restaurant, encountering Amina? At home, the police interrogating her about her sister-in-law, threatening to take her children, putting them in the van? Her giving the information? The driving lessons, her husband and his brutality, bashing her? Amina making her more aware of her situation, the emotional reaction to Amina, her decision, going to the job?
11.Jacob in the restaurant, his age, experience, attraction to Madeleine, visits to the post office, the whites-only section, his decision to take her out, their being caught at the post office, his having to drive as her chauffeur, the break, Madeleine as a sympathetic character?
12.The extended family, the dominating grandmother, meals, the discussions about issues, the grandmother’s death? Funeral? Amina’s father, the others knowing about her orientation, support?
13.Omar and his affair, Farah and her dominance, her disgust with her own husband, her being forward in her manner? Almost being caught? Giving the information to the police?
14.The visitors from Paris, the laws about mixed marriages, the threats and prison? Amina hiding the wife?
15.The film as Miriam’s psychological and emotional journey – and where had she arrived at the end?