The World Unseen

For anyone looking for an innovative or breakthrough film here, look elsewhere. This is a formula film with a capital F and you can predict its progress in the first 3 minutes or so. Sometimes that is OK if the ride is exceptional. This time it is so-so.

The upside: Good if standard cinematography/camera work and editing, believable sets. The subplot with the white bank employee and the mixed race cafe owner is more interesting and suspenseful than the main plot.

The downside: This comes from just how much this film relies on cookie-counter elements. No white or Indian male (save one who appears briefly) or conventionally minded woman is allowed to have a redeemable feature. They are quickly established as people that you will not have sympathy for. Likewise the setting in institutionally suppressive South Africa 1952 is just sooo perfect to inject a touch of brutality and righteous indignation and a hint of a political edge to a very tired story line.

This sets the stage for the predatory/touristy lesbian tomboy to enlighten the frustrated housewife. Yawn....

Then we get the blues-jazz piano intro, some poetry, endless, furtive longing glances, the questioning of values and life goals, the symbolic-suggestive one liners, the moments of crisis, the resolution and the folk song over the ending credits. All formula. Been there, done that.

i saw this film at the London Film Festival ... drawn to it by the subject matter ...

but what a disappointment - the acting was at times cringe worthy ... the script was at times so obvious and telegraphed, you knew at the start of a scene where it was going ...

and there seemed to be an over-reliance on the period props - just having a nice car, is not enough to carry a scene ! the writer/director was there to take the plaudits - she said that with the film being such a small, low-budget production, she had been able to chose the music, and the main casting.

unless you have a strong interest in the subject matter, this is definitely one to avoid.

If someone has already watched a Shamim Sarif's movie, he could see many differences. They are the result of director's evolution in movie techniques. The color of scene is so vibrant, the dialogue is deeper and the end is something that you can't imagine. What is still the same is her passion for the historical background: South Africa at the beginning of Apartheid era. From the story you can do many reflections: first of all about the racism not only between black and white, but also between mulatto and black. There is another important theme: the homosexuality, a relevant issue in the contemporary society, which it is still considered a taboo. This film is very nice, it is better to watch alone. tin this movie the actress are also more mature in they way they act than in the previous one.

I had the good fortune of seeing this magnificent film at the Toronto International Film Festival. Once a year, sometimes twice I see a film that makes my three movie a week habit all worthwhile, something that is so honest and pure that it's like watching a little piece of Heaven come to life on the screen in front of you. The World Unseen was that for me. I don't want to give anything away. I'll simply say that Writer/Director Shamim Sarif works from her heart and her soul delivering a movie that obviously meant the world to her. Lisa Ray, so wonderful in Water, had me in the palm of her hand, pencil her in as an actress to watch in the future. And Sheetal Sheth was a revelation.

Set in the Indian community of Cape Town during Apartheid, The World Unseen looks through the politics, around the issues and shows us the world that is the lives and loves of two young woman, one very traditional, one anything but.

I just saw this film at the London Film Festival. It sold out in two days and they are putting an extra screening!

This film tell the touching journey of one woman trying to find the courage to be herself in an oppressive (but not overly so) marriage with a bit of help from another, wildly independent and free-spirited woman. The background is 1950s South Africa and its despicable apartheid policy. Throughout the film are stark reminders of what that meant for blacks, whites and the Indian community.

No clichés here, just wonderful brush-strokes forming a charming and riveting film.