Film: The World Unseen
Year of production: 2007
UK Release date: 9th May 2011
Distributor: Enlightenment
Certificate: 12
Running time: 91 mins
Director: Shamim Sarif
Starring: Lisa Ray, Sheetal Sheth, Parvin Dabas, Nandana Sen, David Dennis
Genre: Drama/Romance
Format: DVD
Country of Production: South Africa/UK
Language: English
Review by: Sarah Hill
The World Unseen is the debut feature from director Shamim Sarif. The film is an adaptation of her 2001 novel of the same name. Somewhat unusually, Sarif chose to write and direct the adaptation of her novel herself. The film explores the themes of race, gender and sexuality – themes which also seem to permeate into her later work.
Set in Cape Town, South Africa, during the Apartheid era in the 1950s, The World Unseen tells the story of two very different Indian women who form a strong friendship, and eventually a relationship, amidst the oppression.
Miriam (Lisa Ray) is an Indian wife and mother to three young children. Her life is dictated by strict rules – she must maintain the perfect house and be subservient to her husband, Omar (Parvin Dabas), who is not adverse to using violence to discipline his wife. By contrast, Amina (Sheetal Sheth) is a free spirit who refuses to conform to society’s rules. Not only does she chose not to conform to traditional gender roles by dressing in a masculine manner, which was highly unusual for the time, she also demonstrates a complete disregard for the strict segregation laws that existed during the apartheid by running a cafe alongside her black business partner, Jacob (David Dennis).
After meeting one day in the cafe, it is not long before an unlikely bond forms between the two women as Amina attempts to show Miriam a world she has never seen...
“I wish I knew how it would feel to be free” sings Nina Simone over the film’s opening titles. It’s a song which sets the tone of the film perfectly. All of the characters are trapped by rigid rules and regulations and it is this exploration of the oppression that defined this era in South Africa’s history which is one of the film’s main strengths. Those who might not be all that familiar with the film’s social and historical context can’t help but be shocked at just how repressive South African society was during this time. Black people were forced to remain separate from everyone else in public and were denied fundamental rights - the reality of this becomes apparent when police forces threaten to kill Amina and Jacob for breaking segregation laws by serving black customers, which reinforces the extent to which they are endangering their own lives in order to uphold their beliefs.
However, it is not just racial repression which is clearly conveyed within the film. The confines of gender are also adequately explored. Miriam’s role within the household is clearly defined. So much so that it is clear that Omar, as the head of the household, has very little involvement in the day-to-day activities of his children’s upbringing. This is evident within a mildly humorous yet highly decisive exchange in which, after telling his children to do their homework, his young son reminds him that his daughter doesn’t have homework – “she’s only 5.”
In some ways, like Miriam, Amina is also confined by the rules of gender because even though she does not abide by them, in choosing to deviate from society’s idea of the norm, she is putting her life at risk, which means that she is not free to openly explore her sexuality within a same-sex relationship. However, for the most part, the two women are the antithesis of each other – Miriam’s stilted wariness stands in stark contrast to Amina’s calm confidence. This dichotomy evokes some engaging performances from the female protagonists. There is also an obvious chemistry between them as they try to conceal their relationship through surreptitious touches.
Like many films within the period romance genre, The World Unseen boasts glossy production values. However, these can, at times, have quite a distancing effect, as the film’s soft-focus aesthetic dilutes the harsh and oppressive reality of the characters’ lives to an extent. Also, the characters themselves feel lifeless. Miriam’s sister, who is having an affair with her husband, fills her screen time with sultry pouts in a performance which borders on melodramatic. Also, the protagonists themselves are so diametrically opposed that they appear to serve solely to represent the issues within the film, rather than to exist within their own right.
The film also relies rather heavily on symbolism which is far from subtle. The couple conduct their relationship under the pretence that Amina is giving Miriam driving lessons, which comes across as a slightly heavy-handed attempt to reinforce the idea that is central to the film – Amina is providing Miriam with the freedom and independence that she currently lacks in order to enable her to ‘steer’ the course of her own life.
While The World Unseen is an interesting exploration of a highly oppressive society, which demonstrates that gender was, and to an extent still is, just as repressive as race. However, there is a sense that The World Unseen works better as a novel rather than a film. Despite having an auteur-like influence on the work, which comes from the fact that Sarif wrote and directed the film, as well as the original novel, she fails to bring anything new to the genre, particularly in terms of aesthetics. Despite the potential of the unusual subject matter, The World Unseen is an ultimately lifeless film which fails to engage. SH
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