Tower Theatre :: 8:30pm :: Saturday, September 20

The World Unseen

  • $10.00
  • Director: Shamim Sarif
  • 2007, UK, 94min

Set in 1950s South Africa, The World Unseen is a gorgeous depiction of love in the face of oppression. Free-spirited, sexy Amina has broken all the rules of her own conventional Indian community — and the new apartheid government — by running a café with Jacob, her mixed-race business partner. When she meets the breathtakingly beautiful Miriam, their unexpected attraction pushes Miriam to question the rules that bind her, setting in motion a chain of events that changes both women forever.

At first sight, Amina announces herself a rebel. Dressed in trousers and a man’s shirt, her hair flowing freely, she strides around the Location Café like she owns the place. And, in fact, she does. She has drawn all the neighborhood’s social outlaws to her café – the black waitress who plainly does not know her place, and the older white lady who flirts gently (and illegally) with Jacob. It’s the only spot in town to have any fun, and therefore bound to infuriate the apartheid police.

Amina is more than a match for the cops and the conservative demands of her Indian community, but her bravery has a limit. When she first sets eyes on Miriam, she is suddenly as bashful as a schoolgirl. Miriam is married, of course, but fascinated by the unconventional, freethinking woman who shows her so much attention. In time, Amina gains the courage to invite Miriam for driving lessons. Alone together in the car, the two women can only surrender to the inevitable.

One never gets to vote on these things, but it is fair to say that The World Unseen contains not one but two of this year’s steamiest screen kisses. Yet even with its molten core of romance, Sarif’s story is primarily an anatomy of a rarely explored community. Curbed by both abhorrent social laws and their own inhibitions, Amina and Miriam initially suppress their attraction; only when they resist these obstacles does the unseen world become marvellously visible.

AFTER THE FILM: REEL PRIDE AFTER PARTY

Déjà vu
708 N. Blackstone
Fresno, CA

Short Film

The Touch

  • Director: Jane Clark
  • 2007, USA, 8min

Forbidden love is unleashed in this historical piece, where sometimes just a hushed touch has to be enough between sexy women.

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