The Lightning Testimonies: silent witnesses no more

With all the evidence of crime clinically erased and manipulated, and all the witnesses falling silent, The Lightning Testimonies, a documentary directed by veteran Indian director Amar Kanwar exposes the unspeakable. 

This film, which is one of the 35 documentaries of Film South Asia currently screening at Kumari Cinema in Kathmandu, Nepal, is an epic about the sexual violence against women as observed by the victims during the conflicts, ranging from the India-Pakistan partition to the Gujarat massacre, that took place in the Indian subcontinent in the 20th century. In an effort to retell the story of the atrocities inflicted on the female body in the name of honor, nationality, and communalism, The Lightning Testimonies exposes how these crimes are ignored throughout history. 

The film depicts the plight of the the female body that suffers the most during the violent struggle for nationality and patriarchal honor. And, in most of the cases, family members of the young women are killed or driven away. All the evidence of this violence is systematically erased. The entire village, a witness to such atrocities, remains silent out of fear and shame. "How can the victims get justice in such a case?" the film asks.

Stigmatized, the survivors lose their voices. They are left with no alternative but to go on living their life in silence—a self-imposed amnesia. Justice is arduous for women like Bilkees who try to speak up. She was raped by 12 upper-caste males in a village in 2002 and the court initially proved that she lied. Due to her unwavering courage and perseverance, as well as the support of women’s groups and human rights organizations, she managed to get justice after three years, in 2005. The film, therefore asks, "How did it feel to have to prove that you were raped?"  And, since there is nobody to stand up for the women, the film asks the audience whether nature (symbolized as lightning and trees) can stand as witness and testify on the behalf of these victims. But the answer is obvious—nature too is silent and apathetic like the witnesses.

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The film is a reconstruction of history from the perspective of the victims. In most of the cases, there are no written accounts of these crimes. Frustrated by the lack of concrete evidence and willing witnesses, the documentary asks the victims, "Why didn't you leave behind a diary?" Since the official history has ignored these issues, no concrete evidence can be found about the disfiguring, raping and killing of women. The film reconstructs these facts through metaphors like rain, military camp, a shawl, use of painting dominated by red, and the intermittent silences and stillness interwoven with narrations of the family members and relatives of victims. On a more uplifting note, the documentary shows the women of Nagaland demonstrating against violence by stripping themselves in front of the Indian soldiers after an 18-year-old girl gets raped and gruesomely murdered. 

However, the situation has not changed much. Large part of the world is still silent about the atrocities inflicted on the female body, which continues to be a battlefield for all kinds of conflict in the patriarchal society.  And, there is no way except to resort to nature for testimony, but even nature is silent and indifferent. The lightning is silent and apathetic, and so are the witnesses.

Nevertheless, the Mangagkokla case leads us to the realization about the significance of sharing these tales. Mangagkokla, who was raped by the soldiers, shared with many people the atrocities perpetrated on her and felt immensely relieved after sharing her story. Perhaps this is the very thing this documentary aspires to achieve. Kanwar’s documentary is a visual sharing that not only helps the victims and their families to cope with suffering but also urges the world to speak up.