The World Unseen

The World Unseen takes place in 1950′s South Africa where apartheid is still very much in effect. Our main characters are the free-spirited Amina and Miriam, a housewife and mother under the control of awful husband. Amina and Miriam run in similar circles of the Indian immigrant community within South Africa. The two women meet after Amina protects Miriam’s sister-in-law from the police who are after her for violating the law against mixed marriages. Miriam’s interest in Amina deepens when Amina starts doing some farm work for Miriam’s husband. Despite the growing connection between the two women, the societal pressures as well as pressures from both their families seem insurmountable.

Ambitious as this movie is, it can fall a little short due to the fact that it’s Sarif’s directorial debut. It doesn’t quite have the grandiose of a sweeping, romantic period piece that I think they wanted to have. I would have loved to see this be a strong enough period piece/romantic drama to get the critics’ attention. Because I do think this movie is very good and definitely better than lots of heterosexual movies in the same genre

I do also wish that in the writing there could be a little more nuance with how these characters deal with homophobia/sexism/racism. The characters who are depicted to have such oppressive beliefs are pretty uniformly overtly hateful and discriminatory without depth. The husband is particularly dislikable without any humanizing aspects. He’s more of a stand-in for all the oppression that one might face during this time in South Africa than he is an actual character.

Also, unlikable as this husband character is, I think it in some ways cheapens the love story between Miriam and Amina. Because of course Miriam falls for Amina! Her only other option is pretty much the worst person the worst person. Miriam even mentions to Amina early on that Amina is the first person who’s so much as smiled at her in eight days. While I do believe that these characters were in love, I would have liked to see Miriam interact with at least one other half-decent person. Both because I wanted Amina to seem like something more than literally the only option for Miriam and also because Miriam deserves people being nice to her.

Despite this, I do really admire Miriam’s storyline in this. She makes a brilliant transition from meek housewife to someone who values herself and fights against oppression and her terrible husband. It’s very pleasing to watch and Lisa Ray does a great job. 

Ray and Sheetal Sheth’s performances are both strong anchors for the film. It is Ray who steals the show but Sheth is a great scene partner for her. Sheth portrays a strong and interesting character in her own right. This is a movie where I did care about the characters individually as well as as a couple. This movie is successful because their characters and relationship was successful.

I need to get after this film for committing the sin that I have dubbed, “where’s the baby?” Miriam has a baby early on in the movie. It’s established that her husband sucks and won’t have anything to do with said baby. As such, each time Miriam is onscreen and the baby isn’t, I’m wondering who, if anyone is watching the baby. There’s also a few scene in which Amina and Miriam have a romantic moment that’s interrupted by the baby crying. They actually finish their conversation or whatnot before Miriam goes to check on the baby. I got distracted worrying about who’s looking after that baby because they never set up if there’s another family member or nanny watching the kid.

For any writers out there, if you have a baby in your story, please establish in scenes such as this that there is someone looking after the baby while characters pursue their grown-up drama. I don’t like worrying about the neglect of fictional babies.

An ambitious directorial debut from Shamim Sarif, The World Unseen has some issues but is at the end of the day, a strong and engaging film. Lisa Ray and Sheetal Sheth have excellent chemistry and their relationship anchors this movie. I would love to see more lesbian films from Sarif as a director. If this is her first outing, I can’t wait to see what she does on her tenth.

Overall rating: 7.8/10

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