Payal Kapadia's Afternoon Clouds is the only Indian short film to make it to the Cannes Film Festival this year. The FTII student tells Ornella D'Souza how she wants the audience to feel they have space to meander in her art
In India, we tend to believe that a 60-year-old woman doesn't have any (sexual) desires... But that's not true," says Films and Television Institute of India (FTII) filmmaking student Payal Kapadia, about the plot for her short fiction, 'Afternoon Clouds'. The 13-minute film is among the 16 shortlisted from 2,600 entries by the Cinéfondation for the short fiction film category at the 70th edition of the Cannes Film Festival; the cine extravaganza will run in the seaside resort town from May 17-28. Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu will preside over the Cinéfondation and Short Films Jury to choose three winners on Friday, May 26, at the Buñuel Theatre.
Thirty-one year old Kapadia fleshed out the 13-minute film during her second year at FTII, while she shuttled between Pune and Mumbai, where she stayed with her 90-year-old maternal grandmother, who had a Nepalese maid. This setting became her film's premise. 'Afternoon Clouds' brings out Kapadia's preoccupation with how Indian women don't profess their love openly in society and cinema. It shows a maid struggle to communicate with her employer — a 60-year-old widow — in Hindi but speak fluent Nepalese with a boy from her hometown, while sharing a private moment in a public corridor. "I'm also interested in the idea of a private language that happens a lot in India as one speaks multiple languages. So to convey something in secret, one breaks into another language," says Kapadia, who shot the movie on film as she's enchanted by the feel, colour, depth and gentleness that the medium lends to the reproduced image.
Back to school
Kapadia realised filmmaking was her calling when she opted for a course on media at St Xavier's College in Mumbai as a second-year economics student. Before enrolling into FTII's three-year filmmaking course in 2012, she gained experience by working with Dungarpur Films production house and also assisted contemporary artist Tejal Shah. The daughter of one of India' leading contemporary artist Nalini Malini, Kapadia has also made the documentary Cassendra's Gift for 2012 DOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel, on her mother's process of making animation, paintings, sculptures and video works.
"Once when I was struggling for an idea to make a film, mom told me how that morning a pipe burst in the kitchen, spread water all over, and just looking at the patterns in water gave her very many ideas for her art. That made me look at everyday life — from who we meet to really banal circumstances — as interesting."
Space for the audience
The art lineage seems to have rubbed off on Kapadia, who looked at paintings to recreate natural light in an indoor set. "Cinema is no different from any other art form because it is like putting together an artwork. For example, I've used Arpita Singh's works in 'Afternoon Clouds' because we both portray feminine vulnerability with a certain lightness, without making it didactic in any way. I also examined how artists Johannes Vermeer, Rembrandt van Rijn and Diego Velázquez made light in their paintings," says Kapadia.
"A short film is a haiku, where the sum of the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I write each theme in a way that it is not directly related to the next thing, but together they form a third idea," she says. "I have to see the film in my head before shooting it, though the actor may perform it differently. The audience should have space in your art, to meander, get lost, bring forth their own memories and mistakes."
In Short
La Cinéfondation is a foundation under the aegis of the Cannes Film Festival that supports young international filmmakers.'Afternoon Clouds' directed by third-year FTII student Payal Kapadia, is India's only entry in the short film category under the Cinéfondation forum in the 70th edition of the Cannes Film Festival.The film is about a 60-year-old widow and her Nepalese maid. It reflects Kapadia's preoccupation with how Indian women don't profess their love openly in society or even in Indian cinema.
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