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https://vimeo.com/852418952
 

Logline

As the spectre of war grips us today, Rachael, a lonely puppet artist recreates the perilous trek of her mother from Burma to Bengal during WWII and survival in India.

Synopsis

Age does not stop Rachael from doing what she loves…puppetry! Leafing through her family mementos, photos and diaries she finds a new tale. The story of her family! Oral memories of happy days shattered by a war followed by migration, of falling in love, of death and separation, of growing up as a child in a refugee camp, finding a new home in another country. In her twilight years, Rachael, a second-generation WWII migrant shares what she heard from her mother Fenella, and discovers more about herself.

Fenella was a tomboy who enjoyed riding horses and dancing. But those days were cut short when Japan bombed Burma during Christmas, 1942. The family trekked six hundred miles through the Death Valley (Hukawng). Wading through hilly ravines and thick jungles at night, they reach North-East India to be packed off to a train to Calcutta (Kolkata).

Miraculously Fenella bumps into Harry Cheah, son of a noble Chinese family who was in love with her in Burma. They get married. Rachael was a wartime child born in a refugee camp in Central India. Rest of the Eurasian family got scattered in Canada, the US, UK and Australia.

During a failed attempt to relocate in Myanmar (Burma) with her parents, she fell in love with a British medic in a ship, 35 years senior to her. They waited for 16 years to get married, but he passed away soon. Puppets filled her void.

Today, news of war in Europe makes Rachael ruminate on her life in India.

In her workshop, the puppets are now ready for telling stories nobody heard of. They lie motionless, waiting to come alive pulled by strings.

Rachael says souls of the puppets lie in the palm of the puppeteer. Once told, her memories will live on.
 

Meet the Filmmakers

Sourav Sarangi – Director/Producer
Sourav Sarangi is an experienced award-winning filmmaker from India. Leaving his career as a geologist Sourav joined the film school in India to learn film editing. He chose to direct, edit and produce independent documentary films. The subjects varied from disability, environment, social issues, culture and ethnography, connecting them from a humane perspective. Sourav’s keen observations for details and unique visual style lead the audience to a universal cinematic experience.

Tusu Katha (The Tale of Tusu), his debut is a lyrical observation on the threatened culture of the marginal people in rural India, while Bilal takes the story of a kid living with his blind parents beckoning light-rays in a world of darkness. The picturesque Gangetic delta turns into a conflict zone between the state and the stateless as the mighty river changes course along the Indo-Bangladesh border setting the backdrop of Moddhikhane Char (Char… the No-Man’s Island). Traveling with millions of pilgrims in Iraq Sourav made Karbala Katha (Karbala Memoirs) which is nothing short of an elegy reflecting upon the wars that haunt West Asia through millennia.

His films travelled to reputed festivals like IDFA, Berlinale, VDR, Busan, Yamagata, Sydney, Dubai, Moscow, Tiburon to name a few, receiving top awards and accolades including special screenings at MOMA, New York. He is a Global Media Makers Fellow at Film Independent, LA, 2023.

Sourav is also an avid roof-gardener.

Humaira Bilkis – Co-Producer
Humaira Bilkis from Bangladesh is a Dhaka-based independent filmmaker and producer. Visions Du Reel has world-premiered her first feature creative documentary titled Things I Could Never Tell My Mother. This film has also been shown in other prestigious festivals like Lussas Documentary Film Festival, Flahartina Documentary Film Festival (awarded) and is set to show in IDFA. Humaira attended Berlinale Talent Campus, European Film Market, Doc for Sale IDFA, Docdege Kolkata and Dhaka Doc Lab. She is also a guest lecturer in the Television, Film, and Photography Department at, the University of Dhaka.

Miriam Chandy Menacherry – Co-Producer
Miriam Chandy Menacherry from India is the Founder Director of Filament Pictures, dedicated to creating a brand of social documentaries that have won international acclaim. Her award-winning films are From the Shadows #Missingirls, The Leopard’s Tribe, Lyari Notes, The Rat Race, Robot Jockey, Stuntmen of Bollywood and a 7 part series on BBC World. Her films have premiered at IDFA and broadcast on channels like NGC, BBC, Al Jazeera and Arte. She served as jury member on the IDA awards (USA), Kashish LGBTQ Festival and Indian Documentary Producers Association Awards.

In 2019-20 she is one of 18 fellows selected for the Global Media Makers Fellowship by Film Independent and US State Department.

Smriti Shekhar Mandal – Cinematographer
Smriti, the strong-willed young boy from a village in the world’s largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans, travelled to Kolkata, the metro city, to pursue his studies. Now he an emerging cinematographer from Bengal, India, with numerous documentary, short and feature films to his credit. Smriti Shekhar worked with director Sourav Sarangi as DOP & Colorist of the documentary Tiger Army, produced by Films Division, India in 2022. As Colorist he worked with Sourav Sarangi for his documentary Karbala Memoirs (Shot in Iraq), winner of Satyajit Roy Golden Award for the best documentary at 4th South Asian Short Film Festival 2021 and many more. As DOP Editor & Colorist, Smriti worked in a lockdown film for Terre Des Hommes Germany, Sainbarai to Sandeshkhali (Selected in 52th IFFI Indian Panorama 2021) and a Save the children film project.

Abdullah Al-Ghaly – Animator
Libyan Egyptian writer, editor and director born in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1985, Abdullah Al-Ghaly studied filmmaking and animation at the Cairo Cinema Institute, and graduated with honours in 2007. In 2009, he made his directorial debut with the short experimental film Times produced by the Egyptian Film Center. He then co-founded Hassala Films, a collective supporting young talented filmmakers in achieving their projects. In 2011, he began working on his feature documentary Cairo – Ar-rehebat. Lately, he collaborated with Hala Lotfy, co-writing her second feature The Bridge (2016) and co-wrote the TV Drama series Haza Al Masaa by Tamer Mohsen (2017).

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