‘1956, Central Travancore’ (2019) premiered on October 5, at the Moscow International Film Festival. It is about the power of stories and storytelling
The Malayalam director Don Palathara has made three films: Shavam (2015), Vith (2017), and 1956, Central Travancore (2019), which premiered on October 5, at the Moscow International Film Festival. All these films are experimental. All these films could be called non-narrative, as they resist conventional plot and character development. All these films are in black and white, running from an hour to an hour-and-a-half. All these films are set in Chrtistian communities, and are laden with Christian imagery. All these films feature a number of static shots: the camera is still, locked into whatever action is taking place close or afar. In Shavam, the action is centred around the death of a young father named Thomas. The entire film takes place from the time the body is brought into the home — there’s a wailing wife, a slightly dazed son — to the time the body is taken for the funeral. The philosophy behind the “action” in this time frame could be described as follows: let’s be a fly on the wall and observe what happens.
Read the rest of this article at the link above.
Copyright ©2020 Film Companion.
Baradwaj Rangan 
Rahul
October 14, 2020
I was gobsmacked by the brilliance of Shavam when I saw it on Netflix. I could describe what was going on in the film but I am still at a loss to articulate what it evoked in me. It is due to both the subject and technique, probably more due to the latter.
LikeLike
brangan
October 14, 2020
Rahul: I could not find it on Netflix India. Did you see it outside?
LikeLike
Yajiv
October 14, 2020
It is available on Netflix USA. A VPN might help 😉
LikeLike
ItsVerySimple
October 15, 2020
I watched Shavam two years back on Netflix India. I don’t see it anymore though.
LikeLike
Ravi K
October 15, 2020
I don’t think it is on Netflix USA anymore either.
LikeLike