Swakkhyar Deka (India)
biography
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Video title:
Abarodh (The Confinement)
The film is in Assamese with English subtitles.
2008, 14 minutes and 37 seconds
The film tries to show the inner conflict in a person’s mind who finds himself alienated from his surroundings. It’s inspired by the “stream of consciousness” genre in literature. The film deals with a person’s inner conflict and his isolation from the society he is living in. The mental agony, frustration and his so-called to inability to live up to the societal norm- all come together to make him what he is- a rebel. Though he wants to fight the society he is also, to some extent, a timid onlooker. He may be an artist or a poet but his mundane existence is intellectually paralyzing him. The smoke filled room of his, after he butts the nth number of cigarette, becomes symbolic with the vacuum in his life. The books he reads only show his liking for the angry protagonists and tales of depravity. As he walks on the street, he feels like an island in the human sea, adrift and out of company. He reaches an isolated point at the outskirts of the city in the hope of finding himself. He thinks, wonders and also shouts at the top of his voice only to the echo to set his soul free. This may be the same reason why he runs like an insane at night on the sleeping city streets, which seem to challenge him. When he is back in his room, he is tired from his mental wrangle with the city and its people. He finds solace in the bosom of his guitar as he madly plays it to find a musical refuge from his misery. Our protagonist is frustrated- spiritually, aesthetically and yes sexually. His sexual longings make him find comfort in the curves of his guitar that becomes symbolic with a female body and revisits his memory of a night spent with a prostitute. He is disillusioned with the world and he draws on the wall of his room in a burst- images that defy any logic- that may be the only window to the chaos within. The final irony is seen when he picks up the newspaper only to read- It’s Valentines Day tomorrow.
This video participates in
CologneOFF IV – Here We Are!
4th edittion of Cologne Online Film Festival
OFF program