My Daughter the Terrorist

My Dau_the Terror1.jpg

(Beate Arnestad, 2007, Norway, English, Tamil, 52 minutes)

ISAFF 2008

2Why do two young girls choose to become suicide bombers?

This fascinating documentary is an exceedingly rare, inside look at an organization that most of the world has blacklisted as a terrorist group. Made by the first foreign film crew to be given access to the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) of Sri Lanka, the film offers important insights into the recently re-ignited conflict in Sri Lanka. Twenty-four-year-olds Dharsika and Puhalchudar have been living and fighting side-by-side for seven years as part of LTTE’s elite force, the Black Tigers. Their story is told through cinema verité footage, newsreel footage, and interviews with the women and Dharsika’s mother. The women describe heartbreaking traumas they both experienced at the hands of the Sri Lankan army, which led them to join the guerrilla forces. As they discuss their readiness to become suicide bombers and their abiding loyalty to the unnamed “Leader” – who they are sure would never harm civilians – grisly images of past LTTE suicide bombings provide somber counterpoints. Their curiously flat affects raise the possibility that they have been brainwashed. This even-handed documentary sheds light on the reasons that the Tamil Tigers continue their bloody struggle for independence while questioning their tactics.

Director’s Bio

Beate Arnestad has just returned from Sri Lanka. She has for 25 years worked in NRK in a lot of different roles, working out of Egypt, Turkey, Kenya India, China, Singapore, Thailand, USA and several European countries. Her first documentary as a director, ”Where the waves sing”, documented the little known role of Norway in colonial India/Sri Lanka.

(preceded by short film)

Eviction
(Grady Walker, 2006, Nepal/Bhutan/USA, Nepali/English, 10 minutes, DVD)

The Kingdom of Bhutan evicted 1/6 of its population in the early 1990s. EVICTION offers a glimpse into this undocumented tragedy and focuses on the 106,000 refugees still languishing in camps in eastern Nepal. Bhutanese Nepali refugees arrived in Seattle

Director’s Bio

The son of American aid workers, U.S. filmmaker Grady Walker spent most of his childhood in Kathmandu. Later, as a film school graduate, he decided to come back to Nepal and introduce the world to refugees from Bhutan, whose stories he had grown up with. His documentary “Eviction” sweeps from the camps of Jhapa, eastern Nepal, to New York City.

Thursday, Sept. 25, 2008, 7 PM