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Non-Fiction

Woman Rebel: Silu's story

ZEENAT KHAN
THIS past October, the short documentary Woman Rebel by 25-year old director, producer and photographer Kiran Deol was short-listed for the Oscars (otherwise known as the Academy Awards here in the United States). This is an outstanding achievement for a young South-Asian American woman, who only graduated from Harvard University in 2005. (There will be a second round of voting in February to decide the final nominations; out of eight short-listed documentaries, five will get the nomination.) The day after her graduation in 2005, Deol left Cambridge. Massachusetts, and got on a plane to Nepal to film her documentary. Deol wrote her creative honours thesis about a female Nepalese soldier, as a novel on the advice of Jamaica Kincaid, the acclaimed Antiguan novelist who teaches fiction writing at Harvard. This creative writing project formed the basis of inspiration for her endeavour, from extensive fund-raising and with help and support from her friends and family, Deol began her next, more difficult journey, alone, to Nepal to fulfill her dream. Deol's story, as much as her film, is extraordinary. She says her South Asian roots, along with her passion to tell the truth, kept her connected with issues of women in this distant, remote area of the world. She has always been interested in exploring the plight of Third World women and their position in oppressed societies. Upon arrival in Nepal, Deol wrote the screenplay and started filming.
Woman Rebel tells the story of Brigadier Commissioner Silu (in the Rebel Army, pitted against Nepal's Royal army), who goes from a village of a Gorkha Zilla, to being a figure in the Nepalese parliament. Silu is her pseudo name, which she uses to conceal her identity during the war. Silu felt that the government in 1996 was only catering to the rich; she saw firsthand how people in power and society discriminated against the poor, especially women. She felt compelled to join the struggle for equal rights for women, against discrimination and ultimately for democracy (forty per cent of the Liberation Army comprises women.) Silu joined the Maoist guerrillas at age eighteen to fight alongside them in the ten year-old revolution, by then well underway. Her tale, at first, seems highly unlikely; we then watch how, exactly, Silu worked in the jungles of Nepal for ten years to fight for freedom for other women. The documentary opens with her monologue, in which she says she feels happiest when she is in uniform: 'I felt I've risen up."
Visually, and aurally as well, the film captivates the audience from the outset. A single candle burns throughout the movie, wavering, tenuous, but ever-present, perhaps signifying Silu's tenacity. We hear unscripted gunshots and think of Deol putting herself in danger to film, the crisp cinematography is laid atop a melodic, textural backdrop of dilruba. bansuri flute, cello and sarode, interspersed by tabla and the uncanny sounds of a Tibetan singing bowl.
Deol's story-telling style is one of the strongest points of Woman Rebel The documentary provides an unflinching and un-romanticized number of portraits of Silu's family and personal life, giving the viewer a human perspective on a complex political struggle. Silu narrates much of the film, leading us into her life as a daughter, sister, and soldier. Her parents arc very poor and work, though they are well into old age. His back hunched, Silu's father climbs up hills each dawn to tend (he lands of the wcahhv well into dusk < This singular imave of him
climbing, is extremely painful to watch.) Life at home is not much more comfortable: Silu's mother, along with the other Gorkha women in their bright coloured outfits, takes care of all the hard work in their simple red mud home, built high and above the ground. Silu, we learn, also had an older sister, Kumari. According to local custom, Kumari was married off very young, at age twelve. At her in-laws' she was badly treated and beaten. For days she went hungry. She suffered constant abuse at their hands. Kumari came home to her parents and she stayed in her room and cried for days. Silu was about eight years old at the time One day Kumari went into the woods and hanged herself. This, of course, was extremely traumatic for Silu to witness, at
such a young age I he memory haunts her till this day; she says she doesn't remember Kumari's face. This, the saddest experience of her life, makes Silu question her existence. She feels trapped and restless. She feels uncertain about the standard woman s role in society. She wants to prevent other women from feeling the desperation and unhappiness and suffering of her passed sister. At the time, the film suggests, Nepalese women e t very little sense of self. Even though she was very young, Silu felt that things needed to change for women in her land. With blessings from her parents, she decided to join the Maoist party and set out for (he training camp. Her parents let her go with
heavy hearts, but seem to acknowledge that Kumari's death cannot go in vain.
We learn here that her only brother was already a soldier with Nepal's Royal Army. Silu was a determined soldier in her own right, essentially fighting against her brother's army This opposition, this war between brother and sister, forms the central irony of the documentary. The sacred bond between them broken, Silu often felt she had no choice. She felt very strong physically, but not emotionally. The women guerrillas in the documentary have scars and bullet wounds on them, received during fighting. They wear them as a badge of honour. At night they often come face to face with the royal legion, as the rebels attack the army barracks. This possibility, that Silu may see her brother in combat, and her assertion that under command she would have shot her own brother, is one of the most powerful, compelling elements of the film. Whatever the direction of the party was, she was sworn to carry its mission out, including killing her own brother.
At this point in the clash, ten years in, the death toll reaches 13,000. We see dead bodies strewn across the landscape. The chaos and lack of order make people speak up; they seem to want the war to stop. The Nepalese people are shown in their full disillusion, demanding that the Maoists stop the war, demanding that peace must prevail. Because of such high fatalities, the public is misinterpreting the intentions of the Maoist party. The leaders of the party make tactical alliances with the government and mobilize people across Nepal against the king. The king dissolves parliament, unable to restore peace. The Maoists sign a peace agreement, and the war is over.
At the training camp, Silu addresses her fellow comrades as their brigade commissioner for the last time, assuring her fellow comrades that the peace process works. In a moving speech, she points out that the Nepalese people do not have enough to eat. or clothes to put on. She speaks of how the face of the struggle has changed, and of the need for a new kind of fight to alleviate the sufferings and poverty of the public, which will be the ultimate victory.
The last part of the film documents the 2008 democratic election, at which the Maoists win all seats at the constituent assembly, and Silu is elected an official. She emerges as Uma Bojhel, donning civilian clothes, and addresses a parliament comprising 33% women. She says she has to fulfill the dream of her parents by ensuring that peace prevails, by ensuring there is equality between men and women. After spending nearly 12 years with the rebel army, as a parliament member, the new Silu heads home to see her parents, accompanied by an old childhood friend. The whole village gathers to welcome her in celebration. She says, "I've come after a long time."
Women Rebel ends in May 2009, when the Maoists leave parliament. We are left seeing Silu continue her work for women's equality. Having seen this beautifully done documentary, one feels that this is an extraordinary tale and indeed a great achievement by the young Deol. It would be a great pleasure to see this documentary get the nomination in February. All young people should be inspired after seeing such a tale of a young film maker working for three years with rebels, dodging flying bullets and grenades in order to tell her story. Deol's courage and passion for the truth are simply astounding.
Zeenat Khan studied literature at the University of Rhode Island She wntes this piece from