THE WAITING CITY
Australia, 2009, 108 minutes, Colour.
Radha Mitchell, Joel Edgerton, Samrat Chakrabati, Isabel Lucas.
Directed by Claire Mc Carthy.
There are many things to commend The Waiting City to an Australian audience and to audiences beyond Australia. It is also an interesting portrait of a husband and wife, two opposites in terms of Type, who seem to be united in a quest but who, when dropped into a different environment where matters do not go as they might expect, experience a clash but also an opportunity to move towards the other and find some personal individuation as well as some integration in their relationship.
Written and directed by Claire Mc Carthy, it was filmed completely on location in India, especially in Kolkata, with a train trip through the countryside to a town some hours from the city. Promoting of tourism is not an intention of the film-makers, but they so appreciate the distinctive atmosphere, the blend of beauty and squalor, the rich traditions (with their vivid and vibrant colours) and the religious and transcendent spirit that pervades India despite its growing affluence and materialism in some significant areas, that we feel that we ourselves are visiting India with the central couple.
Adoption is the key theme for The Waiting City, the city where an Australian couple, Fiona and Ben, are full of expectations to meet the child they have been planning to adopt for two years and to take her to a new life back home.
While the couple have been approved by the Indian authorities (who remind them that priority must be given to Indian adopting families), they have to wait for the untangling of Indian administrative bureaucratic knots. The transition to a completely different culture (highlighted by Fiona's rather high-handed impatience at the airport and the loss of her luggage) begins to affect husband and wife in different ways and highlights the precarious aspects of their marriage and love.
Fiona is played by Radha Mitchell and Ben by Joel Edgerton.
Some audiences and reviewers have commented that they thought the presentation of the two personalities is rather schematic, that the screenplay obviously sets up the situation, maybe a bit textbookishly. That may be, but it is still interesting to observe the two and see what drives them.
Fiona is a successful lawyer, a workaholic and ambitious. She has her laptop with her and keeps working on an important case despite the difficulties in communication. Ben is a rather laidback former rock musician who has a history of drug problems. Their marriage is tested as he looks out on to India and is caught up in its musical and religious spells. She looks inwards until Ben challenges her, throwing her documentation into the swimming pool in a desperate attempt to get her attention. Can the couple keep face when dealing with the authorities? Can they mend their emotional ruptures? Will the baby unite them?
The first aspect one notices is that Fiona seems to make decisions readily and, despite the personal nature of the visit to India and the prospect of adopting a child, seems to be more of a thinker, enabling her to be more objective and committed to her case. We later learn that she has had an abortion, an experience that seems to have made her approach to life more detached, somewhat harder. Ben makes his decisions from a more subjective perspective, especially in his love for music. He acts impulsively rather than with any planning.
Fiona is outgoing in her work, but tends to be more introspective in her own life. Ben is energised by the world of India out there, and the music out there. Fiona works on an intuitive level, especially in her work. Ben is a here and now person. It suggests that opposites have attracted in this marriage, complementarity but, in the situation they find themselves in, each tends to stay in their own comfort zone.
One way of coping is for them to visit the orphanage where their baby is and see the town where she was born. For a record, both parents speak to a camera and take shots of the baby's home, background and culture to give to her when she grows older. One of the advantages the couple has is their friendly (but very blunt in asking questions about barren women and other personal issues) guide, Krishna, who accompanies them to the town and a visit to his family, his mother (also quite blunt), his wife and children. The focus on their adoptive daughter has a calming effect, enabling each to become more open to the other, although the information and shock about the abortion is too much for Ben.
A key event, a personally transforming event, is Krishna's urging Fiona to step into the river which is said to bless barren women. Fiona confesses to not believing in God but eventually steps into the water, walking right in and submerging herself, experiencing something transcendent, if not a presence of God. The water symbolism, womb, cleansing, purifying, depthing means that Fiona cannot be the same from now on. This religious theme is to the fore as the baby lives at an orphanage run by sisters whose habit resembles that of the Missionaries of Charity and who manifest that charity in their care for the children.
Underlying the plot are themes of pregnancy, abortion, inability to conceive as well as issues of adoption.
Most audiences may think to themselves that they can predict where the story is leading them. It doesn't. Fiona and Ben have to face far more questions than they anticipated, as does the audience. Because of Fiona's deep experience and Ben's coming to share it, especially in the context of death and burial and their rituals, the film suggests that forgiveness, reconciliation and the rediscovery of mutual love are possible.
The film is beautiful to look at and listen to. Audiences from developed countries are taken right into India and challenged about their own expectations of affluence, poverty, hunger, comfort, hygiene, health, opportunities, what they take for granted. A sense of superiority is also challenged as the core of the story is human dignity – no matter who, no matter what.
1. A film of global interest? Intercultural? The East as perceived by the West?
2. The Indian locations, the city of Kolkata, the range of vistas, the streets and the markets, the river, the international hotels and luxury, the crowded streets? The countryside, the train ride? The town, the shrines, the waters, homes, the orphanage? The audience immersed in an experience of India?
3. The background of rituals, Hindu, the bright images and statuary, the range of deities, the pictures, colours and shapes? The variety of patronage of the deities? The feasts, the rituals and celebrations, marriages and ceremonies, funerals and rites? The background of Catholicism and its presence in Hindu India? The Muslim celebrations? The focus on rituals for barren women, the river and the healing waters?
4. The musical score, the Indian background, the songs?
5. A Western perspective on India and the East? The film-makers and the cast? Their characters, the arrival at the airport, the lost luggage, Fiona and her impatience, superiority, the beggars, the children, getting the car? Noting the people sleeping on the streets? Reaction to local customs, manners? Superior-inferior attitudes? The issues of food, drink, hygiene, stomach upsets, diarrhoea? Servants and tips? Illness, stomach problems? Asking about the boiled water? Western presumptions about India and how it should be?
6. The West learning from the East, a sense of humanity, equality, the role of privilege and lack of privilege, poverty and hunger, work? Courtesy, friendliness? Issues of faith, non-belief? The purpose of belief? Theological issues, God, prayer, miracles? If God doesn’t exist, what is the problem of performing a ritual? Catholicism in Kolkata, in the countryside, the orphanage, the background of Mother Teresa and her sisters? Dedication and humanity? The mass, the loss of faith, possibilities?
7. The importance of adoption, Australians adopting Indian children, Indian parents having a priority? The desire for adoption, the complexity of legal issues and documents, bureaucracy? Needs and emotions? Support for the child, loving, offering a child opportunities?
8. The background of conception, pregnancy, abortion, the reasons? Barrenness? Women unable to conceive, impotent men? Fiona telling Ben the truth? The pain of honesty? Both suffering? Possibilities of forgiveness and reconciliation?
9. The device of the video, Fiona and Ben both talking to camera, talking to their child, the photography of the orphanage and the background of Indian culture to show her in the future?
10. Fiona and Ben, their age, experience, roles, Fiona as the breadwinner? Her being a decisive type, Ben and his being laidback? His past, the drugs, rock ‘n roll, music? Her being a lawyer, the consequences of the abortion?
11. The arrival in India, their love for each other, yet the tensions? Fiona in control, the lost luggage, the car, the begging boy, the meeting with Krishna, asking about the tips, giving him money? The different responses of each of them to India?
12. Fiona, her work, phone calls, the computer and laptop, the case, her work, her style on the phone, two phones at once? Taking control of the adoption process? The lack of the sexual relationship between them? Her anger, the dog peeing on her, her reactions?
13. The contrast with Ben, easy, loving music, going for the swim, eating the food, being sick? The diarrhoea, the problem in the street, Fiona going to the pharmacy, the tablets, the toilet paper? Their visit to the authorities, the need for appointments, the phone calls?
14. Their experience of Kolkata, Ben and his delight, Fiona and the mystic experiences, looking at the man in the street with his face painted, the sense of her mother’s presence? Going to the temples?
15. The visits to the official, her reassurances, the bureaucratic difficulties? The growing tensions? Fiona and the drink, going to the dance, Ben’s reaction?
16. The tensions, the gifts, the clothes, the arguments, Ben throwing her documents into the pool? His being ousted? The harsh speaking of truths to each other? Ben putting the note under the door, the sketch for the baby, the proposing of the trip?
17. The trip, Krishna as guide, the train ride, his blunt talking, issues of barrenness, the arrival, the cousin with the car, going for a meal with the family, the mother and the irony of the subtitle questions and Krishna not asking them? Krishna’s wife, the children, feeding the children – and the bond between the two women as mothers? The hotel, its being overrated, the chicken on the bed?
18. The Muslim holiday, going to the river, Krishna asking Fiona about her belief in God, urging her to go into the water, her going down, immersing herself, the close-up of her face underwater, the mystical experience in the river? Ben asking what happened, Fiona and her explanation, her then being able to tell Ben the truth?
19. The truth, Ben’s recoiling, going away, the travel back, putting Fiona in the car for the hotel, his walking away? Krishna trying to help?
20. Scarlett, a friend from the past, the chance encounter in the city, their songs together, her coming to the hotel for a shower, the cause of jealousy for Fiona, Krishna retrieving the towel as she left?
21. Fiona, the firm, the case, her success? The effect of Ben throwing the dossier into the pool? Her beginning to let go of her control?
22. The final appointment, Fiona trying to explain that Ben would not be coming, his arrival? The visits, the nuns, the children? Putting on the pageant? Their child, two years old, ill? Their love, with the child for five hours?
23. The increasing illness, the verdict of the doctor, the issue of transferring her and taking her to Australia, the plane journey? The sister, her explanations of life, parenthood, needs versus love? The child dying? The grief of Ben and Fiona, their participation in the funeral?
24. Their attendance at the wedding, uncertain? Fiona and putting on the sari? Their participating, their experience of the bride and groom’s love, their love for each other?
25. Their future, Fiona in the street, prostrating herself in a mystical experience, her regaining her faith, her prayer at the child’s bedside? The intimations that she could be pregnant – or not?
26. The final dance of life, reconciliation, a new life?
