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MFA Cinema India: Shadow Kill
Shadow Kill by Adoor Gopalakrishnan (Nizhalkkuthu, 2002, 91 min.). Shadow Kill is a hangman’s tale set in 1941 in the principality of Travancore. Kaliyappan, the state-employed executioner, lives with his family in a border village, where he is socially ostracized. Convinced that the last man he hanged was innocent, he drowns his guilt in drink, but he also finds himself in possession of curative powers. Offsetting the protagonist’s desperate faith with the casual cynicism of the legal authorities, the film blossoms into a mesmerizing, complex tapestry of Gandhi-esque references to nonviolence, shamanism, and a story-within-a-story allegory that pairs a young girl’s loss of innocence with a boy who turns into the father with whom he is ethically at odds. Satyajit Ray’s Kerala-based heir, Adoor Gopalakrishnan eschews easy ambiguities in this utterly unique film. Description courtesy of Film Comment. In Malayalam with English subtitles.
This film is part of The Global Film Intiative, which was established to ensure that films from the developing world are screened throughout the United States.
Date: 03/20/2004
Location: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Time: 4:00 pm
Cost: Tickets: MFA members, seniors, and students $8; general admission $9.
$1 Discount Coupon
Web: http://www.mfa.org/film/
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