‘Room’ finds uplifting message – ‘India’s Daughter’ gets Streep’s backing for Oscar

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LOS ANGELES, Oct 16, (RTRS): After exploring drug addiction, depression and suicide in his previous films, Irish director Lenny Abrahamson found his most “uplifting” movie in “Room,” a harrowing tale of a young woman held hostage for seven years in her neighbor’s garden shed.

Abrahamson, known for independent films such as “Frank,” “Garage” and “Adam & Paul,” told Reuters that “Room,” a story about a kidnapped young woman and her young son born in captivity, was a “journey from darkness into light.”

“If you can take a situation as dark as that and show how it’s possible for people to still come through it, survive, thrive, then the film becomes a celebration of those deep relationships we have with each other,” he said.

A24’s “Room,” based on Emma Donoghue’s novel of the same name and out in US theaters on Friday, explores the intense relationship between Ma (Brie Larson) and five-year-old Jack (Jacob Tremblay) as they co-exist in ‘Room.’

Jack, who was born in ‘Room’, knows nothing outside of it until he slowly learns of the world beyond the four walls that contain him through storybooks that their captor brings him.

“To have this little boy who could step into the world for the first time with a pretty nice vocabulary and be able to explain to us what the world looks like to him was such a beautiful glimpse that I hadn’t seen,” Larson said.

Critics have received the film well, singling out young star Tremblay, who was aged 7 during filming and had to perform raw emotional scenes with Larson.

“It turns out he’s a real actor,” the director said.

Complicated

“When you’re trying to do these really complicated scenes, he’s going to goof off or have off days, and it’s about helping bringing him back and making him feel comfortable.”

The tale echoes real-life kidnapping victims such as Utah’s Elizabeth Smart, held hostage for nine months, and Natascha Kampusch, who was held hostage for eight years in Austria. Abrahamson said he researched real cases to get a sense of what daily life was like for the victims.

“Any life becomes routine when it lasts for long enough,” he said.

The film also explores the media fascination with such cases, and people’s desire to know “the darkest, the dirtiest and nastiest” details.

“That’s the terrible dimension of cynicism that does exist in the media and it’s driven by public appetite as well,” Abrahamson said.

A film banned by Indian authorities about the deadly rape of a young woman on a bus in New Delhi has opened in the United States to acclaim, with Hollywood star Meryl Streep saying it deserves to win an Academy Award.

Depicting the rape and murder of a medical student in 2012 that sparked violent protests, the documentary “India’s Daughter” has been mired in controversy since the Indian government implemented its ban.

But Oscar-winning actress Streep, who introduced the documentary at its US theatrical release in New York City on Wednesday night, said it was worthy of the movie industry’s highest honor.

“I’m on the campaign now to get her nominated for best documentary,” said Streep, speaking of the film’s director, Leslee Udwin.

The hour-long film chronicles the gang rape of Jyoti Singh, 23, on a moving bus in India’s capital and the subsequent protests started by Indian students.

Singh, who was returning home from the cinema with a male friend, died after her assailants pushed a metal rod inside her and pulled out her intestines.

“When I first saw I couldn’t speak afterwards,” Streep said.

The film draws on extensive footage of an interview in jail with one of the attackers, Mukesh Singh, who blamed the victim for being out in the evening with a male friend.

“A decent girl won’t roam around at nine o’clock at night,” he says. “A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy.”

Sentenced to death, he has appealed his verdict along with three other convicted assailants also on death row.

The documentary, scheduled for broadcasting in 2012 in India, was banned while Udwin was in the country promoting it, the director said during a talk following its screening.

In a statement, the government warned that certain excerpts “appear to encourage and incite violence against women.”

The movie will open in US theaters on Oct 23 nationwide, promoter Christine Merser said. Screenings are also scheduled in a handful of countries from Iceland to China.

Udwin said she had found hope in the outpouring of support following Singh’s rape but was dismayed at the timid outcry after a 4-year-old girl was raped and beaten with stones in New Delhi earlier this month.

“Why are people not out on the streets now?” she said.

There were 33,764 victims of rape in India in 2013 according to the country’s National Crime Records Bureau.

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