“Rising Silence” (2018) is a 75 minute feature documentary by theatre actor and writer Leesa Gazi. Produced by Komola Collective, Openvizor and Making Her story, this is her first feature film. With the tagline, “If no one heeds your call, walk alone,” the documentary follows nine Birongona women, as they describe the horrors inflicted on them during the Liberation War.
Leesa previously wrote the plays “Daughter of the Forest,” “Six Seasons” and “A Golden Age.” She stumbled upon the idea for making this film while she was working on another theatre project.
In 2010, Leesa met with 21 Birongona women in Bangladesh and later co-wrote a play “Birongona: Women of War.” Audiences of the play often commented on how shocked they were to learn about these stories. This made it clear to her that one play wasn’t nearly enough. She came to Bangladesh again for further research in 2015 and over the years, met with 80 Birongona women.
“I went to Thakurgaon to meet the three sisters who were kept in the rape camp for two and a half months. We had a videographer with us and I was sitting in front of them and they were sitting together,” said Leesa. “We started talking and suddenly Amina Apa, one of the sisters, asked me quite abruptly, why I am not sitting next to them. She said: ‘Are you ashamed to sit with us?’ It was very important to them for us to be together, to acknowledge and learn about each other as women, as daughters, sisters, wives and mothers.”
Over the course of nine months of war, the Pakistani military and their local collaborators raped an estimated 200,000-400,000 Bangladeshi women and children. Faced with a huge population of hundreds of thousands of survivors of rape and torture, the Bangladeshi government, only six days after the end of the war, publicly honoured every woman and child subjected to rape in the war as Birongona (war heroines). However, Birongona women were eventually ostracized and attacked, rather than being respected as freedom fighters.
Centred around interviews of Birongona women, audiences of “Rising Silence” tag along with the director, as the stories unfold before her eyes- unscripted and spontaneous.
The women featured in this documentary are mostly poor village dwellers in their late sixties or early seventies. There is representation of almost every prominent religion of Bangladesh. Some of the interviewees were men as well- an adopted son, a saviour and a Rajakar.
The film has a unique female perspective, which would be difficult for a male director or interviewer to capture. It’s not merely by virtue of all the rape victims being women; Leesa has a way of warming up to her protagonists and winning their trust that helped the film document such captivating interviews.
The film might also touch more female audiences than male, as women face sexual abuse regularly even today. Therefore, they will find it easier to relate to the abuse and its consequences. The depth of the terror endured by these Birongona women may be unfathomable to most, but it will surely invoke empathy in all.
Leesa wasted no time setting up the atmosphere of the dwellings of these brave women. The interviews were informal and the surroundings were set up through action. The director shopped, cooked and prayed with them. She roamed around their houses, petting the cattle and warding off flies and mosquitoes, all the while talking, laughing and bonding with them, as the camera quietly rolled.
The visuals don’t change much throughout the film even though we are taken through several districts. The frames are mostly close and mid range, which is better suited for the small screen. However, the director’s sophistication oozes out of the screen and the visual monotony doesn’t distract the audience from the incredible stories told by these extraordinary women.
The film was apparently lacking a steady narrative progression, until we saw the war babies and their grandchildren, who are still detested by many villagers. Many of them can’t get married as they have no family name. Some of their daughters feel proud of their freedom fighter mothers while some had severed connections with them because the word “Birongona” is synonymous to “bad woman” in their respective villages.
Even if the visual and narration style isn’t your cup of tea, the descriptions of the Birongona women are so alive, audiences don’t feel the need for dramatization. How they were tortured during the war by the Pakistani Army and after independence by fellow Bangladeshis, how villagers beat them up, how their in-laws rejected them, how people called them unspeakable names- it all made the lives of these women beyond agonizing. But that never dampened the spirits of these strong willed women.
“Rising Silence” won Best Documentary award in the Women Filmmakers section at the 17th Dhaka International Film Festival.
Director: Leesa Gazi
Director of Photography: Shahadat Hossain
Editor: Tijmen Veldhuizen
Music Directors: Sohini Alam & Oliver Weeks
Executive Producer: Abbas Nokhasteh (Openvizor)
Producer: Komola Collective
Co-Producer: Making Herstory
Countries: United Kingdom, Bangladesh, India
