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This important
documentary was screened on BBC4 but due to a campaign
from right wing hindutva organisations (alleging bias),
the BBC shelved plans to do further screenings.
Considering the topic and the acclaim received to the
documentary it is astonishing that it has not had wider
coverage in the UK media.
In addition to sending
e-mails, if persons can send through letters/ petitions
then please do so.
E-Mails to be sent to:-
nigel.smith.01@bbc.co.uk
Letters/ Petitions to:-
BBC Complaints, PO Box 1922,
Glasgow G2 3WT
Also, if anyone wants a
VCD/ DVD of this film, please contact me.
BACKGROUND
Final Solution
is a study of the politics of hate. Set in Gujarat
during the period Feb/March 2002 - July 2003, the film
graphically documents the changing face of right-wing
politics in India through a study of the 2002 genocide
of Moslems in Gujarat. It specifically examines
political tendencies reminiscent of the Nazi Germany of
early/mid-1930s. Final Solution is anti-hate/ violence
as “those who forget history are condemned to relive
it”.
Director's Statement
Post-911, we live in a
world where politics of hate and intolerance has gained
mainstream acceptance, even grabbed centre stage. The
right-wing seems to be tightening its stranglehold
across Europe and USA, a nationalism being fuelled by
the anti-immigrant/anti-Moslem rhetoric. The ‘War on
Terror’ dominated the electoral discourse in the US
presidential elections, with both candidates promising
to hunt ‘em and kill ‘em better than the other. In a
world where it has become legitimate to use fictitious
intelligence to justify the bombing of innocents in
Iraq, where it has become acceptable to launch precision
bombs and rockets against non-“embedded” journalists,
where shameless politicians divide up oil wells and farm
out reconstruction contracts for their $ 36 million
bonuses, where babies are killed and mutilated as
acceptable “collateral damage”, we face a challenge
greater than ever before.
We have earlier lived
through many dark periods in history, often justifying
our barbarism by using similar rhetoric. Hate, despair,
destruction and tragedy can not possibly help create
harmonious societies and a democratic world.
During the making of this
film, I noticed shocking parallels between India
2002-2004 and Germany of the 1930s - State-supported
genocidal violence against Moslems in Gujarat and its
continuing impact – segregation in schools,
ghettoisation in cities and villages, formal calls for
economic boycott of Moslems and attacks on
intelligentsia by right-wing Hindutva cadres.
Unchecked and
unchallenged, the rapid rise of politics of hate and
intolerance could very well be the forerunner of a 21st
century Endlosung – the Final Solution.
More about the Film
Part 1: Pride and Genocide
deals with the carnage and its immediate aftermath. It
examines the patterns of pre-planned genocidal violence
(by right-wing Hindutva cadres), which many claim was
state-supported, if not state-sponsored. The film
reconstructs through eyewitness accounts the attack on
Gulbarg and Patiya (Ahmedabad) and acts of barbaric
violence against Moslem women at Eral and Delol/Kalol (Panchmahals)
even as Chief Minister Modi traverses the state on his
Gaurav Yatra.
 Part 2: The Hate Mandate
documents the poll campaign during the Assembly
elections in Gujarat in late 2002. It records in detail
the exploitation of the Godhra incident by the
right-wing propaganda machinery for electoral gains. The
film studies and documents the situation months after
the elections to find shocking fault lines – voluntary
ghettoisation, segregation in schools, formal calls for
economic boycott of Moslems and continuing acts of
violence.
 Final
Solution was banned in India by the
Censor Board
for several months. The ban was lifted in Oct.'04 after
a sustained campaign (an
online petition,
hundreds of protest screenings countrywide, multi-city
signature campaigns and dozens of letters to the
Government sent by audiences directly).
A
Pirate-and-Circulate campaign was conducted in
protest against the ban (Get-a-free-copy-only-if-you-promise-to-pirate-and-make-5-copies).
Over 10,000 free Video CDs of the film were distributed
in India during this campaign, which ended in Dec. 2004.
Final Solution was also rejected by the government-run
Mumbai International Film Festival, but was screened at
Vikalp: Films for Freedom (http://www.freedomfilmsindia.org),
organised by the Campaign Against Censorship. Rakesh
Sharma has been an active member of the Campaign since
its inception.
Awards
Wolfgang Staudte award
(Best film,International Forum for New Cinema) and
Special Jury Award (Netpac), Berlin International film
fest (2004).
Montgolfiere d’Or for
Best Documentary and Le Prix Fip/Pil’ du Public –
(Audience award), 26th Festival des 3 Continents at
Nantes (France; 2004).
Humanitarian Award for
Outstanding Documentary, HongKong International film
festival (2004)
Best Film, Freedom of
Expression awards (2005) by Index on Censorship
Best Feature -length
Documentary, Big MiniDV (USA; 2004)
Silver Dhow, Zanzibar
International film festival (2004)
Special Jury Mention,
Munich Dokfest (2004)
Nominee, Best Foreign
film, Grierson Awards (UK; 2004)
Special Jury Award,
Karafilmfest (Pakistan; 2004)
Special Mention, Bangkok
International film festival (2005)
Special Award by NRIs for
a Secular & Harmonious India (NRI-SAHI), NY, USA.
Special award by AFMI,
USA-Canada
Festivals
Berlinale
(International premiere; Feb 2004), HongKong,
Fribourg, Vancouver,
Hot Docs (Canada), Sao Paulo,
Bogota (Colombia), 3 continents
filmfest (South Africa), Zanzibar,
Durban, Vermont
International filmfest (USA), Asiatica filmmediale (Rome),
Leeds (UK), Cork
(Ireland), Commonwealth film festival
(UK), One world filmfest (Prague),
Academia Olomouc (Czech), TIDF
(Taiwan), Sydney, Adelaide,
Torino, Voces Contra el Silencio
(Mexico), Istanbul 1001fest,
Singapore, Flanders (Belgium),
International filmfest of Human rights (Spain and
Poland), South Asian film festivals (New York, Seattle,
Dallas), Amnesty fest (USA),
World Social Forum (Mumbai), Vikalp (organised
by Campaign against Censorship) etc.
About the
Director
 Rakesh Sharma began his
film/TV career in 1986 as an assistant director on Shyam
Benegal's Discovery of India. His broadcast industry
experience includes the set up/ launch of 3 broadcast
channels in India: Channel [V], Star Plus and Vijay TV.
He has now gone back to independent documentary
film-making.
His first independent
film
Aftershocks: The Rough Guide to Democracy won the
Best documentary film award at Fribourg, Big Mini-DV and
at Big Muddy and won 7 other awards (including the
Robert Flaherty prize) at various festivals in USA and
Europe during 2002-03. It has been screened at over 90
international film festivals. Aftershocks was also
rejected by the government-run Mumbai International film
festival in 2002. |
