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Maadathy, an unfairy tale
Maadathy, an unfairy tale is a 2018 Indian Tamil-language independent film written and directed by Leena Manimekala i

Cast

 * Ajmina Kassim - Yosana
 * Patrick Raj - Panneer
 * Semmalar Annam - Veni
 * Arul Kumar - Sudalai

Synopsis
India is a land of Subaltern deities. Each deity has an unique legend and these legends are often interwoven with socio-historic tropes of India.

Puthirai vannaar is an 'unseeable' Dalit caste group, in southern India.Their forced-occupation is to wash clothes of other Dalits, the dead and the menstruating women. This film is a tale about a young girl who grew up in Puthirai vannaar caste group and how she came to be immortalised as their local deity, Maadathy.

Festivals

 * World Premiere, Busan International Film Festival, October 2019
 * India Premiere, International Competition, Kolkata International Film Festival, November 2019
 * Latin American Premiere, Cartagena de Indias International Film Festival - FICCI, March 2020
 * Asian Competition, Third Eye Asian Film Festival, December 2019
 * Inaugural Film, Panchajanyam International Film Festival, 2020
 * FIPRESCI Jury Award, Golden Kailasha for Best Film, Best Actress and Best Cinematography Awards, Aurangabad International Film Festival, 2020
 * International Narrative Features Competition, Herat International Women Film Festival, Afghanistan, 2020
 * Official Competition, Jaffna International Film Festival, Srilanka, 2020
 * Special Screening, Colombo International Women's Film Festival, SriLanka, 2020
 * North American Premiere, Coalition of South Asian Festivals of North America formed by Tasveer South Asian Film Festival (TSAFF), Seattle; Chicago South Asian Film Festival (CSAFF), Chicago; DC South Asian Film Festival (DCSAFF), Washington DC; Mosaic International South Asian Film Festival (MISAFF),Toronto; Nepal America International Film Festival (NAIFF), Maryland; South Asian Film Festival of Montreal (SAFFM), Montreal; and Vancouver International South Asian Film Festival (VISAFF),Vancouver
 * Finalist, Les Rimbaud du Cinema Awards, France.
 * Top 20 Films Nominations, FIPRESCI Grand Prix Award, India

Reviews

 * ThereWillBeTime "The film is vintage Leena Manimekalai. Maadathy is her love child"
 * Silver Screen - "This film stays with you. It’ll be mentioned in the future as a valiant and non-fabricated attempt to capture one tale about the dalits of India"
 * Upperstall - “Maadathy is a film that shakes us to the core through the story of how even a village or folk deity is born only through torture, humiliation, oppression and want”
 * First Post - "This film needs to be watched, urgently, but our collective outrage when watching it will be a pitiful offering"
 * Film Companion - "The aesthetic choices imbue this simple story with texture and quietly immersive power"
 * The News Minute - "It's rare to see a film where the male body is subjected to the female gaze"
 * Cinema Express - "Remarkably exudes the power of cinema, of storytelling that is poignantly reflective of a society where legends of sin circle and haunt our deities.

Interviews

 * Indian Express - "My films are my way of showing solidarity to fellow human beings.”
 * Indulge Express - "I want to be a scavenger in art like a Puthirai Vannar. That gives essence to my existence”
 * Newsclick - "Why shouldn’t the gods tell their own stories?"
 * Busan Film Festival "Director Leena MANIMEKALAI, who is also a poet, focused on the sanctity found in the uncleanest of all things"
 * Times of India "This is the cinema of the nobodies"
 * Indian Women Blog  "Let us question our commitment as fellow human beings to obliterating casteism from the society for once and for all"
 * Kolkata International Film Festival "India Premiere"
 * Vikatan "A first ever film on unseeables"
 * Bengal News
 * DTNext "Central Board of Film Certification is just a certification board — they cannot impose cuts"
 * Silverscreen "Maadathy pooled in all the goodness around me and the lesson is if you want to do something with all your heart and soul, the whole world conspires with you to realise it"
 * The Newsminute "Maadathy did change me as a person. Every project does that to me, it ploughs me and makes me bear its fruits, sweet or sour"
 * The Hindu "As a film viewer myself, I am entitled to watch an uncensored film, a film that is not tampered by the agencies of the state"