A new series of films at Asia House in London will showcase films by women from around the world.

The Way I See It
Wednesday 2 April
by Sangeeta Datta, 80 min, PG (TBC)
Doors 6.30pm Talk 6.45-7.45pm

Sangeeta Datta will introduce the Women’s Voices film season with a talk on women in South Asian Films illustrated with excerpts from her own documentary, The Way I See It and other South Asian films.
The Way I See It is a feature length documentary based on interviews with six women filmmakers from India and anchored by the well-known actor-activist Shabana Azmi. The filmmakers discuss their films and issues of gendered perception and narratives.

Mr and Mrs Iyer
Tuesday 8 April
Aparna Sen, 2002, 126 min, PG (TBC)
Introduction by Sangeeta Data
Doors 6.30pm Talk 6.45-9.00pm

In Aparna Sen’s award winning film Mr and Mrs Iyer, a Muslim man and a Brahmin woman get to know each other on a fateful cross-country bus trip to Calcutta. Introduced by mutual friends, photographer Raja Chowdharyl promises to look after Meenakshi Iyer and her infant son.

The bus is stopped by an angry mob of Hindu extremists on the prowl for Muslims. They’re out to avenge the burning of a Hindu village. A storm of communal violence and hatred has swept over the entire area, with people killing one another, and bloodshed and fire all around. When Meenakshi learns that Raja is Muslim she starts to maintain her distance from him. But fate has other ideas. Seeing the inhuman way in which Muslims are being killed, she can’t help but save his life. She lies to the Hindu extremists, saying that they are a married Hindu couple, Mr and Mrs Iyer.

Khamosh Pani (Silent Waters)
Tuesday 22 April
Sabira Sumar, 2003, 101 min, PG (TBC)
Introduction by Sangeeta Datta
Doors 6.30pm Event 6.45-8.30pm

Silent Waters is a 2003 French/German production about a widowed mother and her young son; set in a late 1970s village in Pakistani Punjab, which is coming under radical influence. The film was shot in a village in Pakistan and won 7 awards. It was Sabira Sumar’s debut film.

The plot features Ayesha, a seemingly well-adjusted middle-aged woman whose life centres around her son Saleem - a gentle, dreamy 18-year-old, in love with Zubeida. Ayesha’s husband is dead and she manages a living from his pension and by giving Quran lessons to young girls. The story begins in 1979, in a Pakistan under President General Zia-ul-Haq’s martial law. The country has embarked on the road to Islamicization. Saleem becomes intensely involved with a group of Islamic fundamentalists and leaves Zubeida. Ayesha is saddened to see her son change radically. Events escalate when Sikh pilgrims from India pour into the village. Later, a pilgrim looks for his sister Veero who was abducted in 1947. This awakens heart-rending memories of violence during partition and the effect it had on women.

7 Islands and a Metro
Tuesday 29 April
Madhusree Dutta, 2006, 100 min, PG (TBC)
Introduction by Sangeeta Datta
Doors 6.30pm Event 6.45-8.30pm

This film showcases multilingual Bombay, the Bombay of closed mills, of popular culture, sprawling slums and real estate onslaughts, the metropolis of numerous ghettos, the El Dorado. It is a tale of the city through a tapestry of fiction, cinema verite, art objects, found footage, sound installation and literary texts.

The narrative is structured around imaginary debates between Ismat Chugtai and Sadat Hasan Manto over the art of chronicling these multi-layered overlapping cities. Shot mainly during the monsoon the film portrays some extremely beautiful yet ruthlessly violent features of Bombay which, generally, are not part of the popular narratives.

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Asia House members and concessions £5, Non-members £8
For booking: tel: 020 7307 5454 / mail: enquiries@asiahouse.co.uk
Asia House, 63 New Cavendish Street, London W1G 7LP
www.asiahouse.org