UTOPIA
Afghanistan/ UK, 2015, 85 minutes, Colour.
Martine Malalai Nikria, Andrew Shaver, Arun Bali, Hannah Spearritt.
Directed by Hassan Nazer.
Utopia is described by one of the characters in this film as a place where everyone is at peace, where war and prejudice have been eliminated. This is a very difficult concept because the film is in Afghanistan/UK production with some of the sequences in characters in war-torn Afghanistan.
There are three streams in this story, sometimes with great space between the episodes, but ultimately they do come together.
One strand concerns an Afghan woman whose husband has been injured in the war and is now paralysed and cannot communicate. She has remained faithful to him and now has the idea that she should bear a child by artificial insemination in his memory. She has to go to Scotland for the procedure, discussing with the doctors, encountering a medical student, David, whose story is the second strand.
He is the son of a British military man killed in Afghanistan, initially seen at a celebration for his dead father, talking with his girlfriend who cannot support his ideas of utopia. The main part of his story is his desire to have a child, persuading the doctors to have his semen for the implantation in the Afghan woman, with professional standards preventing him from revealing this to the woman herself. On the contrary, he persuades himself after an accident that he will reveal it, urges her to meet him in India, starts telling his story – to the alarm of the woman who declares to a counsellor that she feels that she has been virtually raped.
She has met a taxi driver in India, who strand is the third story, an old man, drinking and fighting in bars, in prison, persuaded by his children to drive a taxi – encountering the woman, driving her out into the countryside near the border with Pakistan where she wants to cross the river, even though pregnant.
The final images are of her giving birth to the child, its being stranded on rocks, and her dying.
By no means Utopia.
1. An Afghan- British coproduction? Characters, themes? Historical interplay between Britain and Afghanistan?
2. The Afghan locations, Scottish locations and the hospital, countryside, travelling to India, the Indian city, streets, hotel, restaurant? The musical score?
3. The title of the film, William’s explanation to Lucy? Hopes?
4. The three stories, each introduced, the gaps between each chapter of the story, eventually coming together?
5. The songs about love at the beginning, the motorbike and the Give Way sign, the accident, the drowning at the border?
6. Janan’s story, Afghan, Muslim, prayer and God, her marriage, the injuries to her husband, complete paralysis, the eight years, caring for him? His passive condition and no communication? His being looked after, the carer, Janan and her trust? The decision to have a child, the investigations in Afghanistan, the recommendation to Aberdeen, her travelling there, the interviews with the doctor, meeting with William, the process, her pregnancy, returning home, awaiting the birth of the child? The message from William, the dangers of her travel to India, the rendezvous, her puzzle at listening to his story, a realisation of what it happened, the old man as the taxi driver and his friendship, talking with the counsellor, the saying that she felt that she had been raped? The taxi ride, the old man and his family, going to the border, the river, floating and drowning, the child being born and stranded on the rocks?
7. William, the memorial for his father, killed in Afghanistan, the long lineage of fighters there? His relationship with Lucy, the conversations, the meaning of life, utopia? Her leaving him? His accident, the Skype contact with her? Medical student, his ideals, peace? Utopia? His interview with the doctor, wanting to supply the semen? Accepted? The
confidentiality, his decision to break it, phoning Janan, meeting in India, his life story? Her response? His responsibility?
8. The old man, drinking, fighting in the bar, in prison, his children wanting to help, his release, the taxi, his not wanting help, his driving, meeting Janan – the repetition of the opening sequence of the border and her drowning?
9. The film about East and West, about Western values and religion, Eastern religions, issues of destiny and fate? Issues of war and suffering?
