ACF
Asian Cinema Fund
Post-Production Fund
2024 Post-Production Fund
LIST Sad Letters of an Imaginary Woman
| Category | Asian Project |
|---|---|
| Project | Sad Letters of an Imaginary Woman |
| Director | Nidhi SAXENA |
| Country | India |
| Director's Profile | As a film writer and director, Nidhi Saxena aims to explore the complexities of existence and relationships, depicting vulnerability and longing in search of truth. Starting her journey with a background in sculpture and fine art, she has refined her skills as a documentary producer and director, gradually transitioning into fiction. Having studied screenplay writing at the Film and Television Institute of India, she is well-published in India as a story writer and cinema commentator. Collaborating with marginalized women through filmmaking workshops by the United Nations Population Fund has further shaped her perspective. Cinema, for Nidhi, transcends logic and reason, inspiring spiritual experiences. In her films, she seeks the abstract and magical; expressing the self beyond mere scenes. Directors like Tsai Ming-Liang and Apichatpong Weerasetakhul particularly inspire her work. |
- Synopsis
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Nidhi (43) and her mother Meera (70) exist in a decaying ancestral house, a physical manifestation of their stagnant lives. Nidhi′s childhood was marred by a traumatic event involving her otherwise mostly absent father, leaving her emotionally traumatized and perpetually unhappy. She grapples with her past by writing haunting letters to her younger self and having conversations with her on the phone, transcending time, in which she laments the life she could have had and warns her younger self of the anguish that awaits if she cannot find a way to break free from the cycle of trauma.
Meera harbors unfulfilled longings for an unrequited love affair that never came to fruition; a wistful yearning that compounds her sense of failure as a mother, as she witnesses Nidhi′s debilitating despair and tries to take care of her daughter in the hope that she might one day find solace.
Incorrigibly depressed, Nidhi discovers an ancient mystical ritual which can make her vanish, and the idea takes root. Meera, in a last act of motherly love, decides to join Nidhi on this metaphysical journey into nothingness. As mother and daughter perform the rites, the barriers between past and present dissolve. Memories bleed into the present, echoing their anguished cries, long suppressed by the expectations of society.
On one transcendent night, enveloped in darkness, they disappear - two flightless birds finally freed from their corporeal and emotional prisons, in an experimental meditation on the complex struggles endured by women.
- Director’s Note / Intention
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This deeply personal film explores the immense burdens and limited self-expression faced by women, especially in Asian and Indian societies. The decaying house metaphorically represents their emotional state, with scenes of darkness mirroring the inner turmoil of each character.
The deliberate pacing of the film reflects their sense of entrapment and the monotonous reality of their lives. Drawing inspiration from real experiences, the interplay of the characters’ memories and the anxieties with which these women must live in their never-ending loneliness, the film sheds light on patriarchal violence and the enforced isolation women endure, confined within their homes.
Set in a dilapidated space, blurring past and present, memories haunt the characters, draining all hope. Sparse dialogue and a muted approach evoke profound emotional and psychological struggles. An experimental meditation, this film sheds light on the silent suffering of women under oppression, sparking crucial conversations around this universal, prohibitive, and disempowering aspect of women’s lives, across all ages in our societies.