Dechainees: A French film treat
BANGALORE: As a treat to all the French enthusiasts in the city, the Consulate General of Switzerland screened the movie Dechainees (Unleashed) by Raymond Vouillamoz at the Alliance Francaise de Bangalore auditorium recently.
Winner of the Swissperform award in Best Swiss Television Film 2009, the story is about 19-year-old Lucy, an intern at a TV station.
During the course of her work, she chances upon a tape from the 70’s Women’s Liberation Movement. She is intrigued by one of the activists, an infamous feminist and abortion activist, who bears an uncanny resemblance to herself.
Lucy tries to trace her identity, knowing little that her investigation would lead her home and lay bare a decades old secret.
The unfolding of the movement is brought out through age old tapes and Lucy’s conversations with some of the participants. The feminist movement takes on a new meaning when Lucy discovers that she is pregnant.
Her mother, who has experienced the trials and tribulations of a teen pregnancy herself, encourages her to abort. On the other hand, her boyfriend is proposes marriage. Her traditional and conservative grandmother calls it ‘a gift of love’.
A conflicted Lucy looks to the lessons from the past to decide her future. There is a scene where the distraught protagonist views a film that sets out the suffragist’s take on reproductive rights, especially abortion. It is almost as if these women have reached out across the barriers of time and speak exclusively to Lucy.
She realises that the small things that she and her sister take for granted is the legacy of the women who braved being labelled ‘rebels’ in order to bring about change. The luxury of choice was a hard won one. All this and more shape her attitude as she tries to take the best decision for her and her unborn child.