Directed By: Miriam Chandy Menacherry
Screenplay By: Triparna Banerjee
Featured: Leena Kejriwal; Hasina Kharbhih; Samina; Ella; Zinna Ali Laskar; Shakti; Krishna; Shampa; Seema Saha
Language: English; Hindi; Bengali
Genre: Documentary
Run Time: 75 minutes
From the Shadows is a documentary film that explores the heavy and pertinent issue of trafficking in India. The narrative follows two different women in their journey to bring the women, girls, children —justice. What truly brings out the grit in this fight is the active involvement of the girls who have been impacted by trafficking and are choosing to speak out.
We follow Leena Kejriwal through the streets of Kolkata where she uses different stencils of a girl’s silhouette to create the shadow of a girl with – #missingirls on the walls. The thing to note about sex trafficking is that unless you have been personally impacted by it, it is easy to pretend that it is not happening around you. The shadows, the hashtags are there then to force a conversation that needs to happen for change to actually occur. Leena’s work can be found in different cities.
Through Leena, we are introduced to Samina (name changed to protect her identity) who is fighting to get her case into the courts of law so that the people who were responsible for having her sold might be punished for their crime. The worst of it is that they live in her neighbourhood, unaffected. She has a desire for closure which is thwarted because of the roadblocks in her access for legal justice. Leena works with her to support her case because convictions in trafficking cases are notoriously hard.
Hasina Kharbhih’s work brings us to the greater possibilities of legal redressal and the dangers in its pursuit. Her legal struggle to get Ella, a young woman who escaped and sought justice, was dangerous because of the threats made to their lives. Largely since there is big money involved and many hands get greased to smoothen such operations built on the bodies of young children.
Nevertheless, Ella’s story is a story of victory in that she is able to get her conviction. Hasina’s work explores the larger political frameworks that needs to be sensitized to reduce trafficking. Which is why her work is aimed at engaging with border forces of India, Bangladesh, Nepal so that these women can be found before they are spirited further away.
We are given insight into what motivates these women who are seemingly outside of the struggle in comparison to Samina and Ella, to fight, to invest their time and energy into a battle that is both exhausting as well as disheartening – both in terms of the little returns as well as the exposure to the heartbreaking stories of violence and betrayal that is inevitable in these cases.
One of the most inspiring incidents that the film covers, is that of Seema Saha, a school student who successfully stops the child marriage of a classmate. She also works with other teens in creating a map of safe spaces in their locality that could be circulated for the people to be made aware of. The authorities do not take their concerns seriously – a behaviour pattern that reflects the assumptions made about children as well as the general apathy that people feel when such concerns are voiced.
What is fascinating about From the Shadows is not the theme or the fact that it acknowledges that the fight against crimes of this nature is an arduous struggle but that it equally focuses on the positives. There is an actual possibility to get justice; it is not easy nor will it be soon and maybe not for everyone but it is possible.
From the Shadows uses shadow art, street art, and other forms that imply temporality, fragility and yet it underscores the idea that art can be political; that it can be used to make a statement. That street art can begin an important conversation that needs to happen incessantly. In fact, Miriam Chandy Menacherry herself dove into this story, the struggle, because of art. We are then reminded that art can power social critique. Trafficking may be an ongoing problem but it is one that needs to be made visible.
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