Rubaiyat Hossain

Under Construction, Rubaiyat Hossain (2015)

Rubaiyat Hossain is a Bengali screenwriter, producer, actress, set designer and director.  Her debut feature Meherjaan premiered at Baghdad, Belize, Bogotá, Los Angeles, Marbella, Oaxaca and both Jaipur and Sarajevo, where it won Best Film.  Revolving around a love affair between a Bangladeshi woman and a Pakistani soldier during the 1971 war of independence, Meherjaan proved to be extremely controversial and was pulled from cinemas in Bangladesh after a week.  

After participating in Locarno's Open Doors initiative, Hossain's second feature, Under Construction, premiered at the Berlin Feminist Film Festival, Bogotá, Seattle, São Paulo and Vesoul, where it won the Jury Prize; Dhaka, where it won the Audience Award for Best Film; and the Asian American International Film Festival, where Hossain won the Emerging Director Award.  

In an exclusive interview with Filmatique, Rubaiyat Hossain discusses the heterogeneous nature of womanhood, the financial independence of her mother's generation, and her next project.

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FILMATIQUE:  Under Construction tracks Roya's transformation by deconstructing and reconstructing the theatrical character Nandini, a representation of womankind under cultural and sociopolitical norms defined by Tagore's play Red Oleanders.  What motivated you to choose this particular work of theatre as a framing device for Roya's character?  

RUBAIYAT HOSSAIN:  Red Oleanders is Tagore's last play and he said, "it's a vision that has come to me in the darkest hours of dismay."  The play is an allegorical tale that critiques industrial modernization, a process by which the human spirit is sucked dry by greed for material gain and the profit-making machineries of corporations. 

Originally written in 1924, I find the play to be extremely relevant even today.  I always wanted to make a film in which I could use this play to reflect upon present day reality.  Tagore's play is set in the underground world of 'jokkhopuri,' where the workers don't have names but are instead defined by numbers.  These workers are employed by a king who is hidden behind a net and can't be seen.

Today millions of workers are employed in Bangladesh's multi-billion-dollar ready-made garment sector, working for corporations that do not have a human face; the workers never meet the actual owners for whom they make the clothes.  In Tagore's play Nandini is a young woman who brings a ray of hope to this underground world.  She is an individual and has not lost her spirit.  However, in Tagore's representation, Nandini is made to bear the cultural burden and thus turned into an icon.  Her personal desires and dreams are missing; all she does is care for others and wait for her lover to arrive.

In my film, while I wanted to use Red Oleanders to reflect on present day reality, I also wanted to challenge Tagore's representation of womanhood and create a female protagonist who is an individual driven by her own desires, dreams and ambitions.

FLMTQ:  Roya's struggle lies not only in constant reinventing Nandini, but also in liberating herself from conventional morals attributed to and expected of Bengali women.  The role of the Bengali woman, much like the cityscapes in Dhaka, remains under construction.  How do you envision the contemporary Bengali woman, and how does Roya's story either reinforce or challenge that vision?  

RH:  The contemporary Bengali woman is very much under construction.  She swings between tradition and modernity.  She struggles to come to terms with who she is.  Her journey is not complete, just like the city that swings between urban and rural.  The women in the city struggle to find themselves, to follow their desires, while adhering to the traditional roles. 

Will she finally break out?  I don't know.  Only time will tell.  All I know is that she is struggling, she is trying and she is dreaming.  In that sense Roya represents the urban middle class modern woman of Dhaka City.  She lives within the confines of patriarchal domesticity, but she dares, at moments to break out of the cage.  The character of Roya is largely informed by women around me.  Some of her dialogues and actions are inspired by real life events.

FLMTQ:  This in-betweenness of the city, and the woman, also resonates in the intergenerational conflict between Roya and her mother.  Can you reflect upon the differences between generations, especially of women, in Bangladesh?  

RH:  One of the things I wanted to do in Under Construction was to depict that womanhood— it is not a homogenous experience, and neither is the concept of women's empowerment.  According to class, age, religious values— the concept of womanhood and what is considered emancipatory may vary.

Roya's mother represents the women of our mothers' generation— a generation that largely sacrificed their lives for their families.  These women always served the families, and while the family members were dependent on their service, these women never needed anyone because nobody ever served them or took care of them. 

In that sense, I find women of this generation to be very indepdent.  When Roya's mother says, "I don't need anyone," this is something I sometimes hear my mother say.  Despite her religious confines Roya's mother is financially indepdent, unlike Roya who is dependent on her rich husband's money.  The character of the mother is one very close to my heart, and it's a tribute to the women of a generation who had given their entire lives to their families and got very little in return.  Thus, at the end I made her refuse her daughter's support, I made her walk down a dark corridor and slam the door shut.  She is alone, but she is strong, perhaps stronger than the women of our generation in some ways.

Under Construction, Rubaiyat Hossain (2015)

FLMTQ:  The way in which Roya rediscovers ambiguous facets of Nandini corresponds to the manner by which she can achieve her personal, hidden desires.  The awakened sensations of freedom, confusion, and dilemma are visually translated into the dream-like sequences through a group of symbolic figures.  Can you reflect on the importance of spaces outside reality— of creation, or art— to achieving our desires?  

RH:  When Roya's reality is too suffocating she takes refuge in her dream-like state.  In other words, when as a director, I felt I had to reach outside the realistic space to express the dilemma of my character, I decided to reach into an imaginary state.  To me this state represents the female symbolic, wherein meaning is created through metaphors and juxtaposition of image and sound.

FLMTQ:  In contrast, Roya's observation of her former maid Moyna's pregnancy, as well as the experiences of other unnamed working-class women, highlights her realization of that which is material versus immaterial.  In the end, these realizations hold more weight than any of her fantasies.  Can you discuss your thoughts on the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory, and the impact that incident had on you as both a Bengali citizen, a woman, and a filmmaker?  

RH:  When Rana Plaza collapsed I was actually writing the script of Under Construction.  At that moment I decided to incorporate the tragedy in the film. 

The character of Moyna stands in contrast to Roya, who is more privileged.  The journeys of Roya and Moyna are thus very different.  Even though they love each other, the class barrier makes it impossible for them to be friends.  All Roya can do is reflect on Moyna's journey in her art work.  Similarly, as a middle-class artist, all I can do for the women factory workers is to reflect about them in my work.  Perhaps this act is not enough, perhaps it is also hypocritical, but that's all I can do and that's all Roya can do.

FLMTQ:  What is it like to be a female filmmaker in Bangladesh?  What obstacles have you faced, and where have you found the greatest support?  

RH:  The most difficult part of being a woman director in Bangladesh is the feeling of loneliness.  There have only been 12 women directors in the entire history of Bangladesh, and many of these directors were actors turned directors who made just one film and then disappeared.  Currently there are only two women, myself and another woman named Nargis Akhtar whose films are released in theaters.

While I work in Bangladesh, often I find myself in a room full of men.  I have worked in studios where I was the only woman, or sat in meetings where I was the only woman.  Another difficulty I face is a lack of trust, people questioning my ability as a director.  I have to work extra hard to establish my authority and credibility.  The greatest source of strength for me has been my family, my partner and some of my fellow male directors who have given me respect and recognition.

FLMTQ:  Are you working on any new projects and, if so, can you tell us a bit about them?  

RH:  After Under Construction, I felt I wanted to make a film that would take a closer look at the working class women of Dhaka City.  I wanted to make a film that would pay tribute to the young women employed in the ready-made garment sector.  These women are incredibly strong and form the backbone of Bangladesh's economy.  It is because of their labor that Bangladesh has become a middle-income economy.  They are young women like Moyna who work hard in an industry where their lives could be at risk.

The collapse of Rana Plaza is a defining moment in contemporary Bangladeshi history.  I feel the workers who died in Rana Plaza are martyrs, because their deaths were a wake-up call to the nation and to the whole world.  The factory conditions have dramatically improved after Rana Plaza.  The government took immediate action, factory owners and foreign corporations became more aware and concerned. 

However, the biggest agent for change have been the factory workers themselves, who through their activism unionized many factories and created conditions by which owners and buyers are more accountable.  My next project, Made in Bangladesh, is about the positive changes in Bangladesh's ready-made garment sector.  The story revolves around a young woman's effort to unionize her factory.  It's a story about how women's solidarity and activism have brought positive changes to this sector.

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Interview by Haneul Lee

Guest Curator, Filmatique