Kim Longinotto, director of Pink Saris

British director Kim Longinotto’s vibrant and touching documentary film Pink Saris was screened at last month’s 54^th Annual BFI Film Festival. Filmed in collaboration with Amber Latif and Girjashanker Vohra, the film focuses on Sampat Pal, leader of the Gulabi Gang (Pink Gang) of the Uttar Pradesh state of Northern India. Distinguished by their vibrant pink saris, the gang fight to raise awareness of the widespread abuse of young brides (most of them forced into marriage as children) at the hands of their in-laws. A former child bride herself, Pal is a brash bold campaigner, commanding the attention of crowds, and dragging the long-ignored issue of the girls’ suffering into the daylight – by confronting and publicly shaming their abusers.

As the film progresses we meet Renu, who has run away from her husband and abusive in-laws to marry a local village boy, and who Pal now has to protect after the boy’s family persuade him to abandon Renu and come back home. We also meet Naranjan, Pal’s niece, who like Renu, has been raped and physically abused at the hands of her in-laws, and whose sick baby was left to die for no apparent reason other than being a girl. As the story unfolds, we see how Pal herself is more complex than she first appears, and ultimately fails to protect the girls she initially promises to help.

Many of Longinotto’s other films also focus on women living in oppressive patriarchal cultures, including Divorce Iranian Style (1998) a fly-on-the-wall look at Iranian Divorce Courts, Rough Aunties (2008) focusing on women on a mission to help abused and neglected children in South Africa and The Day I Will Never Forget (2002) which takes an honest, harrowing look at female circumcision in Kenya. We caught up with her to talk about her films, her background and why she and her colleague plan to return to Northern India – this time without a camera.

The girls’ stories in Pink Saris were very harrowing. Have you had any update about their situations – has anything changed at all?

Renu went back to her ex in-laws and they married her off to a really old man [in the film Renu appears to be barely in her teens.] I’m absolutely desperate about it, and trying to work out how to get her out of there. Her situation couldn’t be worse really. And Naranjan’s also still with her in-laws – she had another baby which sadly died as well. They’re assuming it was a girl.

At the end of the film Renu took refuge in Sampat’s house. So was it Sampat who sent her back to her in-laws?

I think it must have been and I’m really angry with her about it. Although to be fair to Sampat, she has people asking for her help all the time. Recently her family have all descended on her and her son’s just got married. I just think she couldn’t cope. The thing is, she’s not equipped to be a counsellor or somebody who’s going to get those girls out of their situations – she’s too damaged from her own childhood. But she is raising-awareness, and drawing attention to how these girls are being ill-treated. We need to keep this in mind, that although she did let those girls down, there is something positive coming out of all her efforts.

Was it a disappointment when Sampat didn’t turn out to be exactly “The Messiah of Women” she proclaimed herself to be?

It was in one way, but when we finished the film I actually came to prefer it, because she came across as a more complicated and interesting person than if she was just this big hero. And I felt the film was more honest even though it was disappointing for us. It gives an insight into how power corrupts people who start out with good intentions. Throughout the film you can see her starting to become more political and more aware of her own power yet more distant from the people she’s meant to be helping. And it is a kind of pattern that happens everywhere – obviously a prime example is the most recent scandal in the UK with the politicians’ expenses.

Do you think that your film will help bring about the help these girls desperately need?

I think change is on the march – the fact that Sampat has all those women in pink ready to follow her shows that there is a huge hunger for it. People in the community have started to question what’s going on around them. When Naranjan, after Sampat’s encouragement tells the crowd that her sick baby was denied medical help and left to die, the men in the village start shouting at her mother in-law for allowing this to happen.

“A woman’s life is very cruel”

In another way, I would love the film to have an affect on the people who are watching it. I want them to identify with the characters in the film, and maybe think “well if Naranjan has been treated as a ‘non-person’ all her life, but has some sense that she matters by seeking Sampat’s help, then I have no reason to feel sorry for myself.”

What first sparked your interest in film making?

It stemmed from my longing to escape which began in my childhood. I didn’t like being a child at all, I hated it in fact. How I got through was by living an imaginary life and reading novels. When I was growing up I always thought I’d tell stories. At first I thought I’d write books, and then I felt that – as I’d been quite lonely all my life – that the solitude of writing wasn’t for me. Filmmaking seemed a better option – you’re out in the world and engaging with people – and you always have someone working with you.

Do you think female film makers are able to ‘see’ things differently?

I don’t know, I can see a lot of the films couldn’t be done by men logistically, for example in Divorce Iranian Style I couldn’t have access to the Iranian women if I were a man. I was struck by a film called Fucking Åmål by director Lukas Moodyson. I remember watching it and thought “this is probably by a woman!” It was so beautifully done – a woman couldn’t have done better!

What other films have you enjoyed watching during the London Film Festival?

I saw an amazing film called Winter’s Bone by director Debra Granik. It feels like a documentary but it’s very much fiction. It has got very strong female characters and is beautifully acted.

A lot of your films are about oppressed women under patriarchal systems. Is this something you want to continue making films about?

I’m happy to carrying on filming situations like that, but first and foremost I look for good stories. Before I decided to film Sampat, I saw footage of her, and saw a person who commands attention and gets people talking. I thought, well if I hang out with her I’ll get stories! And that was exactly what happened. The crowds that gathered weren’t bothered about us, the film crew – even when we put the cameras away, their attention remained glued to Sampat!

Your focus on watching the action unfolding, has led you to film some quite graphic scenes in your previous films, such as The Day I’ll Never Forget, which shows a young girl undergoing a circumcision in Kenya. Was that the most traumatic experience of your career?

It created the deepest self-hated I’ve ever felt – I don’t think I’ll ever stop feeling like that about that scene. I felt really awful, even though the doctor told me he really wanted it filmed. But when it was actually happening, and when the girl was grabbing onto my leg and screaming, I thought “Oh God, I should save her.” But I was told that if I did save her, they would only do it after I’d gone and in the extreme way which takes half an hour, as opposed to the 8 minutes it eventually took. So I knew I couldn’t stop the thing, but at the same time, filming it felt really awful. Which is why I insisted going back the next morning to check on the girl and her friend who had also had it done; I remember being chilled by them saying they were glad they had it done.

From The Day I’ll Never Forget

Since then I’ve been in touch with [Nurse] Fardhosa- who campaigns for this practise to be outlawed. She’s raised money from the film to set up a little clinic to make sure that, if she can’t prevent it, she can at least make sure the girls are physically looked after. She’s also been doing a lot of campaigning with the film, so it’s been really good for her cause. And that’s why it’s so important that the scene was included, but I just wish someone else had filmed it. It was a story that had to be told but it doesn’t make you feel better.

Of all your films are there any others which particularly stick out in your mind?

I feel quite close to Rough Aunties as I talk to [contributor] Mildred a lot who’s become a really good friend. And then my latest film Pink Saris is still very upmost in my mind. I’ve been dreaming about the girls and worrying about them and wondering what to do for the best. The ‘fixers’ I sent money to over in India keep saying that there are millions of girls in the same situation and we can’t help them all. That may be true, but these are the girls I know. I’m very determined to help somehow, but it’s so difficult, as they’re in very remote villages. They don’t have birth certificates, they’re not registered anywhere- officially, they don’t exist. I’m just going to go with Amber and demand to be taken to the girls. We’re not going to film it – we just want to get them out of there, and hopefully we can sort this out. The girls were absolutely thrilled to know they were in a film. That’s why I wanted them to come and see it, to be shown that they’re important – and that they matter.

You can learn more about Pink Saris by clicking here. A video Q&A with Kim Longinotto and Amber Latif can be viewed here.

Pink Saris is distributed by Women Make Movies. In November Pink Saris will be shown in Europe at: I D F A in Amsterdam, Gijon Film Festival in Spain, Watch Docs in Poland, CPH Dox in Copenhagen and THIS HUMAN WORLD FF inVienna.

The trailer for Kim Longinotto’s Pinks Saris