THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Not much is remembered today about the mass recruitments of Malayali Catholic girls as nuns to Germany which spurred an international controversy in the 1960s and '70s. Now, more than four decades later, a bilingual documentary - in Malayalam and German - explores the controversy and traces the lives of the girls who boarded ships to Europe.
'Ariyappedatha Jeevithangal' (Unknown Lives) written and directed jointly by documentary filmmaker Raju E Raphael and media activist and researcher K Rajagopal, will premiere at the
Geothe-Zentrum Thiruvananthapuram the coming Thursday. Noted writer Paul Zacharia will formally present the film to the audience. Raju E Raphael and Rajagopal had joined hands with journalist Jose Punnamparambil a year ago to study and document the controversy that raised several questions during that period.
Young Malayali Catholic girls, who had completed matriculation or were studying in senior secondary classes, were recruited to West Germany to fill up vacancies of nuns in several German convents. ''The recruitment began in 1962 and mass migration of girls took off when the first batch of started their journey to Europe from Bombay in January 1963. Following this, many more groups of Kerala Catholic girls migrated to West Germany in the coming years and by 1972 the figure crossed 800,'' the Goethe-Zentrum said.
''Poverty was a major reason,'' says Rajagopal on why families agreed to send their young ones to distant Germany. But trouble soon began when European and American newspapers got wind of the practice and called it human trafficking. Allegations arose that the girls were used as slaves in German convents and hospitals. Soon, the Syro Malabar Church in Kerala and the Catholic Church in Germany found themselves pat in the centre of a raging debate.
The documentary makers said they travelled extensively in Germany, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra to trace the Malayali nuns, several of whom were living their retired life in these places. “The screening of the film will be an eye-opener to both German and Kerala Societies on Malayali German nuns,” said Rajagopal, who led the filming part in India.
Prakash Rana has handled the camera and editing, while Sathyajith scored the background music. Film director K B Venu’s has provided the commentary. The film was produced by Dinesh Kallarackal under the banner of Raphael and Menon Media, India.
'Ariyappedatha Jeevithangal' will be screened at 6.30 pm at Goethe Zentrum.