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= Maadathy = Maadathy, an unfairy tale is Leena Manimekalai's first pure fiction feature film. It is a crowd funded, community participatory film made with a collaboration of a very small film crew, staying true to an indie spirit. Western ghats is almost a character in the film and the forests captured are where the Director actually hails from. Like the Director's earlier films, Maadathy also faced road blocks with the Regional Censor Board(CBFC). The film was cleared by the Appellate Tribunal(FCAT) later without any cuts, after a rigorous legal fight. Maadathy started its journey with a world premiere at 24th Edition Busan International Film Festival and it is still buzzing in the film festival circuit.

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  'un seeable' 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.''

Director's Statement
I have grown up listening to stories of my village female deities who were once ordinary women but had extra ordinary lives. Most of these goddesses were killed by injustice and hence were worshipped in order to save the village from their wrath. These legends of social suppression are always a great learning material to understand my roots and evolution of the society I live in.

While it is not a norm to have someone from an oppressed caste as heroes even in our folktales, as a story teller, I started pondering on making a film of an un seeable woman, of an accursed, of a nobody who is not even a statistic in a society that is deeply divided by an unjust caste system. I started my research, traced down the community, read all the least material available, did hours and hours of interviews, stayed with them for months together in the remote villages of south Tamilnadu in India and realized the script with their active inputs and participation.

"Maadathy" is my attempt to introspect what is it being an un seeable slave woman, living the lowest among the lowest, as a victim to both patriarchy and caste system.

Producers
Leena Manimekalai

Bhavana Goparaju

Piiyush Singh

Abinandhan Ramanujam

Screenplay
Leena Manimekalai, Rafiq Ismail, Yavanika Sriram

Dialogue
Rafiq Ismail

Story & Direction
Written & Directed by - Leena Manimekalai

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 20200

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, 2020

Official Selection, Regina International Film Festival, Canada, 2021

Official Selection, Ottawa Indian Film Festival, Canada, 2021

Top 20 Films Nominations, FIPRESCI Grand Prix Awards, 2020

Director's Short Biography
Leena Mani mekalai is a poet and filmmaker committed to social justice. Her narrative documentaries on the dynamics of caste, gender, globalization, art therapy, student politics, eco-feminism, indigenous people's rights and LGBTQ lives have been internationally acclaimed and have won several awards in prestigious international film festivals and civil rights circuits. Her docu fiction ‘Sengadal the Deadsea’ won her NAWFF Award at Tokyo for the Best Asian Woman Cinema and also was recognized with prestigious Indian Panorama selections after the initial ban by CBFC that got cleared through several months of legal battle. One of her documentary ‘Goddesses’ has won her Golden Conch at MIFF and Nominations for Horizon Award in Munich and Asia Pacific Screen Award in Melbourne. ‘White Van Stories’ an exclusive doc-feature on enforced disappearances on Srilanka was shot by her and won her accolades in platforms like Channel 4 and Aljazeera. Her recent documentary co-produced with NHK Japan is currently doing festival rounds and has already won Best Documentary Award at Singapore International Documentary Festival and Jury Mention at the prestigious Film South Asia, Nepal. Additionally, Leena has received the Charles Wallace Art Award, the EU Fellowship and the Commonwealth Fellowship for her work in Cinema and Gender. She has published five poetry collections and is currently editing her non-fiction feature ‘Rape Nation’ that traces the lives and struggles of rape survivors across the Indian Subcontinent. ‘Maadathy- an unfairy tale’ is her second feature fiction.

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"