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Kathmandu Friday October 05, 2001 Ashwin 19, 2058.
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‘The Killing
Terraces’ steals the show in Film-South Asia
Post Report
KATHMANDU, Oct 4 - The hall in the Russian
Culture Centre ran to full house both the times for the screening of The Killing Terraces
today. The documentary produced and directed by Dhruba Basnet was the first movie to be
screened today as part of the South Asian Documentaries 2001.
The film was made using footage shot in 26 days
in Rukum, Rolpa and Jajarkot in the Far Western Nepal that makes up the stronghold of the
Maoists. The film attempts to showcase and understand the causes underlying the rise of
Maoists and its effect on the local population.
The film portrays the local people as to how
their lives are affected and disturbed with the rise of the Communist Party of Nepal
(Maoist) and their six years of violent struggle. It also depicts that the aftermath and
the ongoing turmoil of the ‘people’s war’ was the creation of the
government’s own action.
The Killing Terraces focuses largely on the
victims of Maoist insurgency, which has spread all over the country and has now become the
foremost challenge facing the state.
The best part of such a documentary stands when
it is not judgmental. This 55-minute film has stuck to the rules not only by depicting
reality and transparent lives of the people but also by bringing out the other side of the
story, the other cruel truth.
That is, the film shows pro-Maoists and their
families’ openly criticising and blaming the police, the government and eventually
the law of the nation, to be responsible for the state of their lives, full of social,
economical and psychological deprivation.
While we have heard tragic stories of many of
the victims of Maoist insurgents, this film is different in the way it has brought into
picture the victims of police torture and mismanagement of the government and of the law.
The most striking part of the film that caught
everyone’s breath was a young boy who looks after his younger brother and sister.
Today he is silently venting anger and waiting to join the Maoists to take revenge on the
police who killed both their parents.
The film has brought on one platform, to the
people that it is the have-nots, women and children who are suffering and paying the
price, no matter what the cause.
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