When college kids come home, they eat like they've been homeless all this while. And in a sense they have. Food is the thread that ties us to our home and our families. Especially when we're away. Like many other aspects of Identity which is forged first and foremost within the households, this is where our palate is formed. And as we grow older and leave the nest we seek the flavours that transport us, often inadvertently, to the place, people and culture we came from.
It’s this emotional and cultural tether that Sulaimani, an animated short film by Vinnie Ann Bose, so delicately explores. Through captivating 2D illlustrations and stop motion storytelling, the film uses an unexpected encounter of two Malayali women in France, to take us through the immigrant life and in the different ways home finds us after we've left it behind.
The film was supported by CNC, France’s national film board and produced by Girelle Production with co-writing by Patricia Valeix. It received the Ciclic prize at the Festival National de Film d'Animation de Rennes, which provided funding and a 3-month residency at Ciclic Animation in Vendôme, where Vinnie and her team built the detailed puppets and sets that make the restaurant come alive.
The story begins on a metro during Christmas, where Alia, our protagonist notices Neena, a woman speaking on the phone in Malayali who forgets her tiffin on the seat as she gets off the train. Alia, to return it, follows her into a South Indian restaurant called Sulaimani. There, in a gesture familiar to anyone who has grown up with South Asian hospitality, Alia is asked to stay for dinner.
In this Parisian Indian restaurant, food becomes the vehicle through which the stories of these two women unfold. Their juxtaposition as characters paints a portrait of how immigrants reconcile with leaving home as well. Alia, has short hair, piercings and is dressed in Western attire. She has no plans of visiting home for the holidays. When asked by the Chef at Sulaimani, she even denies being Indian. Neena on the other hand is in a salwar kameez, a braid and a bindi. She still speaks French in a South Indian accent.
All of this points to the different conditions in which they left home. Neena, a mother, came to France for work after husband lost his job, leaving her children behind. Alia's father wasn't speaking to her when she left to study abroad instead of getting married. One story is shaped by duty, the other by defiance. And yet the emptiness, longing and a yearning to belong is shared by both. In the film, home and an immigrant's relationship with the idea of it takes many forms — language, clothes, and food.
Sulaimani is a sharp and melancholic portrait of the dissonance between culture and identity, showing us that it exists as both as a gift and a burden. Through Alia and Neena, we see two opposing responses to migration — one of assimilation and one of preservation. Both women are adrift in different ways, trying to reconcile with what they had to sever in order to begin again. The film through a loving but painful montage of two families depict the emotional cost of that loss. And yet it leaves us with a meditation of home which is ultimately a shifting set of meanings that we carry and are reminded of — sometimes by a recipe; sometimes by a song; and sometimes in the company of a stranger who reminds us who we used to be.
Follow Vinnie here and watch the trailer of the short film below:
If you enjoyed reading this here's more from Homegrown:
Subarna Dash's 'This Is TMI' Uses Breasts To Unpack Objectification & Feminine Identity
Studio Eeksaurus' New Stop-Motion Short Spotlights The Plight Of The Desi Wool Industry
'Wives & Wives': Watch A Jetsons-Esque Animated Short By Pramod Pati & G.K. Gokhale