LONGING short movie, 5‘55‘‘ Antigone Project Kathmandu, Nepal 2017
Which truth is the correct one: that of the individual who wants to live his life through personal responsibility? Or that of the community which claims to know best what laws and what customs must be obeyed to achieve peaceful, human co-existence? Individual perpetrators see themselves as chosen to save the world, and become more and more radical until they destroy themselves. The constant struggle between the individual and the society, between individual conviction and majority opinion, between feeling and power, determines the daily life of women in Nepal. At the same time, the booming, multi million funded Bollywood film industry represents an unrealistic image, a surrealistic world of dreams and visions that are in a vast contrast to the daily life of highly talented female artists in Asia. In LONGING, the female protagonist (Akanchha Karki) has to face this conflict in her longing for appreciation and affection. In a constant struggle she is searching for a full liberation of her inner needs, represented by her female alter ego (Nisha Joshi) and her male counterparts (Utpal Jha, Aayan Khadka). Under the starring glimpses of the male spectators, she vehemently claims her rights as an individual artist as well as an authentic woman. This short movie contradicts the degrading position of women in a male dominated industry by opening the discussion and looking for an alternative solution to the romanticism. It is a powerful statement against the limitations of female rights in the mainstream movie industry and in the established art in general.