Durham
WATER
DUKE CAMPUSFor a socially conservative country, it’s amazing that many of India’s top directors are women. Deepa Mehta is officially Canadian (as was Water‘s selection as a nominee for a Best Foreign Film Oscar last year), but her Elements trilogy, Earth, Fire and Water, portray independent-minded women who act on their own desires, sometimes with disastrous results. Water‘s original production was shut down by disapproving Hindu fundamentalists, who believe widows to be so cursed that their continuing to live in society brings misfortune to all. Religious orthodoxies often play out their most extreme tenets by subjugating women. Mehta’s controversial feminist view of some of India’s thorniest problems suggests idealism contains hidden transformative powers. Water plays tonight at 8 p.m. in Griffith Film Theater, located inside the Bryan Center. The screening is free. For more information, visit fvd.aas.duke.edu/screensociety/schedule.php. Laura Boyes
