City: Mumbai
Location: Alliance Française auditorium
Date: Tue, 2012/12/18 – 6:30pm
In partnership with The Root Reel
Between the lines, by Thomas Wartmann (95’)
Between the Lines documents the tremendous effort photographer Anita Khemka puts forth in order to capture the life of the eunuchs of India – the Hijras – living as outcasts on the edge of society. Officially the existence of Hijras is denied. And their universe itself is highly inconsistent: Hijras are infertile – yet, according to the Hindu religion they have ‘a talent to spread fertility’. And although they have no apparent sexual organs, the erotic is omnipresent in their everyday lives.
Being a woman, as well as an Indian, Ms. Khemka succeeds in becoming close to the Hijras; something that any Westerner – particularly a man – would never achieve. We follow Anita through India with three Hijras – Laxmi, Rambha and Asha – on a journey that introduces us to a world of fascination and the bizarre. Revealing their lives, their laughs, their celebrations. The prostitution. And the struggles of what it means to be a ‘Hijra’.
