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Closet land

(1991)

                   Directed by Radha Bharadwaj in 1991, "Closet land" is a in-camera movie, mainly about torture, as well physical as mental, which could take place in any totalitarian country, but which no one is named. In the middle of the night, a young woman, who is a writer, played by Madeleine Stowe, is taken by force from home by soldiers. When she wakes up, she's interrogated by a man (Alan Rickman), who accuses her of criticizing allegorically the government in her books for children, but she denies the facts and refuses to sign the paper of her guilt. Even so, the book which is a problem for the government, "Closet land", is just a manuscript, but it has been found during the search. It relates the adventures of a young girl shut away in a cupboard, who is saved after by some fantastic characters, like a flying cow. The Interrogator accuses the book of being subversive, of corrupting minds of children, and giving rise to opponents of the government. The woman doesn't want to submit herself to his accusations, so, he talks of her mother, which urges her to evoke her childhood, of her fear of the darkness and of being shut away. In fact, she admits that she has been raped several times in a cupboard when she was 5, by a friend of her mother. "Closet land" allowed her to free her from the suffering she felt, through an allegorical and metaphorical story, which is not about the government. But in order to push her to admit the facts reproached to her, the Interrogator tortures her physically several times, but also mentally, playing several characters when she's blindfolded. However, she realizes that he's doing comedy, so, she refuses still more to answer him. Afterwards, he opens a door towards which the young woman hurries, and enters in another room, followed by the man. If you want to know the end of the movie, highlight the next sentences ;) During their conversation in this room, she accuses him of being the man who raped her when she was young. Afterwards, they come back in the main room, where there's the desk, and after another refusal of the woman to recognize the facts which are reproached to her, she's finally freed.

                This movie, which could remind us by some aspects "1984", by George Orwell, has been directed with the support of Amnesty International, in order to remind us that torture still exists in many countries today. Highlight the following sentences if you want to read some theories about the end of "Closet land". Actually, some passages of the movie can have several meanings. In fact, it's not sure that the Interrogator has really raped the woman when she was young, because they haven't a big age gap. Maybe that he made her believe that in order to weaken her physically. Moreover, when she's freed at the end of the movie, isn't it a metaphor of her psychological freeing thanks to her book ? But on the other hand, couldn't also interpret it as her death ?

               In this in-camera movie, forbidden to people who are less than 18 years old, because of the torture scenes, the actors are wonderful. Alan Rickman plays several characters at the same time in an incredible way. He also gives many facets to his character, sometimes understanding and the next second, making suffer the young woman with very cruel acts, but being always very sexy ;) As for Madeleine Stowe, she's really moving and she gives to her character a strength which allows her to free herself, physically and mentally. It's a very good movie which makes us thinking about torture which still exists today,  unfortunately, in many countries.

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