"The World Unseen"
A Time that Should Never Have Been
Amos Lassen
During Apartheid, South Africa was a pressure cooker and it was then that two women met and their worlds were turned inside out and upside down. Miriam, a traditional Indian mother is hardworking and self effacing. Amina is a cab driver who breaks all of the rules when she sets up a café for black men. Even though the women faced complete and utter disapproval, their friendship not only remained strong but flourished. However it cost Miriam plenty as she discovered the truth about her marriage. Here in a country that divided white from black and black from Asian as well as the women from the men, there seemed to be little chance for the survival of unexpected love.
The film follows the touching journey of a woman trying to be herself in an oppressive society who gets some help from a wildly independent woman. We look at issues that are quite controversial--race and lesbianism and director Shamim Sarif handles them with elegance. She manages to make segregation and maltreatment of gays come across the screen as outrageous and unacceptable by the standards of today. Her point appears to be that people should never have to live in fear.
When Amina went to vast Miriam while her husband was not at home, sexual tension rises between the two women. I understand that the story drew directly on the experiences of director Sarif's own grandmother's memories of the Apartheid.
Both Miriam and Amina come from Indian backgrounds as they had both been born in India and moved to South Africa seven years prior.
Amina is a free lesbian, totally uncloseted while Miriam, naïve and neat and tidy was ready for a change in life. Her husband, a misogynist male tended to domestic abuse and Miriam was ripe for a new kind of love. Miriam is totally feminine while Amina is a feminist who dresses in trousers and floppy hats. (Remember it was 1952 and women did not wear pants). Amina is about defiance and Miriam was completely subservient to her controlling husband. The love between the women is seen in their eyes.
There is beauty in the muted subtlety of the film and we look at a period in history that never should have been.