KANYA
A subtle, aquatic odyssey.
2020_Short_FICTION
Shortlisted for Student Academy Awards 2021World Premiere at Busan IFF 2020Raindance 2020Best Film by Women Director at FF Cincinnati 2021
Dharamshala IFF 2020Best Sound Design at Interfilm 2020Short Shorts Film Festival and Asia 2021Bogotà Short Film Festival 2020In the Palace Film Festival 2021Watersprite Award for Best Social Impact 2021Kanya follows the life of an adolescent girl growing up between the values of occidental and traditional cultures, whose aspirations of becoming a competitive swimmer takes an unexpected turn when she gets her first period.
Do you know what a gift it is to be born as a woman?
Kanya intimately explores the inner dissonance of an adolescent girl who is experiencing puberty in a traditional Indian family. Kanya is a successful swimming champion with a promising career in sports. Her world collapses when she gets her first period and her family demands that she accepts the traditional status of a woman. Kanya‘s natural maturing along with her physical and psychological transformation are neglected by her close ones who also curb her freedom. On the outside, Kanya yields to all the demands and accepts her fate without objecting. However, she experiences deep trauma within. Kanya‘s inner disharmony escalates, leading her to finally muster the courage to revolt against the system that clearly defines and sets the standards of the conventional status of a woman.
Gender stereotypes have a significant impact on girls, especially during puberty, as this is the time when they learn what it means to be a woman through labels laid down by society – such as beauty and subservience. The onset of puberty triggers increased pressure from society to conform to hegemonic sex-typed identities and roles. Youngsters become primarily aware of these gender stereotypes and roles during this age and begin to assume and accept them as “universal truths”. Consequently, girls’ struggle with self-esteem and self-confidence twice as much as boys during puberty because society sends out a message that vigour, power and authority are for men, not women. These stereotypes not only promote inequality between sexes but also encourages youngsters to believe and accept imbalances in power within relationships later in their lives. Gender stereotypes are so deep-rooted in our culture that they even become a part of our language. Empowering girls during this time of their lives when confidence is at its lowest, would be powerful, relevant, and purposeful. Besides, the world is at a turning point where gender equality is not just a women’s issue anymore but a human rights issue. Therefore, it’s also important to instil a sense of equality in the minds of not just adolescent girls, but boys as well by supporting them to understand the effect gender stereotypes can have on their options and roles in sport, at school and within their families. This aspect will also help them develop realistic expectations about future relationships based on mutual respect and equity.
BEHIND THE SCENES
KANYA
கன்யா | SHORT FICTION | 15 MIN. | 2020 | INDIA, CZECH REPUBLIC
WRITER AND DIRECTOR: Apoorva Satish CO-WRITER: Vidhya Iyer DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Faraz Alam ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: Pedro Carneiro PRODUCTION DESIGNER: Jennifer Margaret Bailey EDITOR: Lucie Hecht COMPOSER: Susha SOUND DESIGNER: Vojtěch Zavadil VFX SUPERVISOR: Tomáš Pokorný DI: Suresh Ravi PEDOGOGICAL ADVISORS: Ivo Trajkov, Marek Jicha EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Michal Sikora, Apoorva Satish CO-PRODUCER: FAMU International
Credits
CAST
Tarunya Satish, Balaji Rajashekar, Mona Kakkade, Harish Kumar
In India, they would take away my passport for criticizing the system, says the Indian director Apoorva Satish
Director Apoorva Satish originally wanted to study film in Los Angeles but she accidentally discovered FAMU. What was moving from India to Prague like for her? What would she change about the Indian caste system? Why does the beginning of menstruation mean the end of freedom for women? And how was her film Kanya, which […]