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I’m re-posting this directly from the Times Multimedia because I have been struggling to write anything original longer than 140 characters. Another reason for this is because my friend Natalie Becker has a small role in this film and she informed me about it beforehand and because I love watching movie trailers, this grabbed my attention. And so once I’ve watched the film I will update this will my own review. One thing that bothers me is that the two lesbian women are unusually attractive. Especially the women who is supposedly a mother. Also view the awesome website for The World Unseen.
Sheetal Sheth, the central figure that creates the tension in the plot, has some of the most amazing eyes I’ve ever seen. And I’ll be looking for more of her earlier movies like Looking for Comedy in a Muslim World. And it turns out Lisa Ray is a model turned actress with a strong Bollywood background. This is not unusual in the movie business because who wants to look at average looking people in film and television?
Anyway here’s what The Times has to say about it, mostly like taken from another source like IMDB.
In 1950’s South Africa, apartheid is just beginning.
Free-spirited Amina has broken all the rules of her own conventional Indian community in South Africa by running a café – a safe haven of laughter, music and home-cooked food. A ‘grey area’ for those who fall outside the strict ‘black and white’ rules of the apartheid-led government.
Café regulars include Amina’s feisty waitress, Doris, her gentle “coloured” business partner, Jacob, and the sparky white local postmistress, Madeleine. Long accustomed to the racial barriers of the country and its new laws, Madeleine and Jacob nevertheless share a budding attraction.
Miriam, on the other hand, is a doting mother to her children and a demure, subservient wife to her chauvinistic, frustrated husband, Omar. Quietly intelligent, Miriam has never assumed that she has choices in life.
When Miriam meets Amina, their unexpected attraction throws them both off balance. Although Miriam manages to subdue her fascination with unconventional Amina, she finds herself slowly inspired to confront familiar and familial constraints. Shortly after their encounter, Miriam moves to an isolated life in the country, but, even here, apartheid is placing its cruel footprint on society and these injustices bring the two women together again, cementing the basis of their growing feelings.
Meanwhile, Jacob decides to pursue a love affair of his own and he and Madeleine begin a tentative, touching relationship. But the best intentions of both are overcome by practical challenges and indignities of simply spending time together.
Even the fearless Amina, faced with the strength of her feelings and with the reality of Miriam’s situation, starts doubting herself. And Miriam finds herself making some courageous choices that will change her own life forever.
Using the stunning South African landscape and jazz music of the time, The World Unseen explores a system that divides white from black and women from men, but one that might just allow an unexpected love to survive.
Genre: Drama
Director: Shamim Sarif
Absolutely loved The world unseen. Loads of depth to it. It used to be that lesbian interest movies were just lesbian interest movies. But this movie adddresses some really important issues as well as the lesbian love story. Well done