Historical dramas can trigger and enlighten our consciousness - The National https://www.thenational.ae/opinion/historical-dramas-can-trigger-and-enl...

Lets use human escapism to our

advantage, argues Shelina
Janmohamed

Viceroy's House depicts the last days of the British Raj.

Courtesy Bend It Films

Shelina Janmohamed
September 13, 2017

Staying in is the new going out. I confess

that on my nights in, I have become addicted
to the historical drama genre. I'm not the only
one. We are having a bumper crop of films
that bring our unknown histories to screen
and they are proving hugely popular. They
are winning awards and becoming box office

1 of 6 1/8/2020, 10:29 PM
Historical dramas can trigger and enlighten our consciousness - The National https://www.thenational.ae/opinion/historical-dramas-can-trigger-and-enl...

hits.

These are the high-quality production

dramas that bring to life true stories and
events from the past. Who needs fiction
when the stories in our histories are so edge-
of-the-seat gripping?

Against the backdrop of the 70th anniversary

of the Partition, we saw the epic production
The Viceroy’s House released.

With the temperature rising on race relations

and the civil rights movement in the US,
we’ve seen glorious productions like Twelve
Years a Slave and The Butler weaving
stories about black American history into the
experiences of individuals. Films like
Suffragette re-examine women’s lives. And
amid all these productions are witty dramas
like Hidden Figures, the story of the black
women who were part of Nasa and the first
space and moon explorations. The list is
lengthy and important.

2 of 6 1/8/2020, 10:29 PM
Historical dramas can trigger and enlighten our consciousness - The National https://www.thenational.ae/opinion/historical-dramas-can-trigger-and-enl...

Viceroy's House will be screened at the Berlin International

Film Festival.

Our love of fiction is easy to explain. It fits in

well with the human need for escapism and
storytelling. And we particularly love
immersive historical fiction, with all those
glamorous period clothes and grand
emotions.

But bringing real stories to life, some of them

huge turning point events, others completely
unknown, speaks to the fact that we are
living through an era where history is
increasingly being contested and shows that
how we talk about the past is contentious. To
re-examine history is to open a Pandora's
box about why the world is how it is today.
Re-examining history is powerful and
uncomfortable.

When the protesters at Charlottesville came

out in supposed defence of the statue of
Confederate leader Robert E Lee, what they
were really doing was defending their

3 of 6 1/8/2020, 10:29 PM
Historical dramas can trigger and enlighten our consciousness - The National https://www.thenational.ae/opinion/historical-dramas-can-trigger-and-enl...

version of history.

____________________

Read more by Shelina Janmohamed

Why does the world do nothing for the

Rohingya?

The virtual world is robbing us of our ability

to reflect and ponder

____________________

The statues of Confederates were not

erected at the end of the American Civil War,
but at the turn of the 20th century and in the
years just before the emergence of the civil
rights movement. These were not memorials
of the past, but statements trying to use the
veneer of history to literally whitewash
political oppression.

The same goes for the way history is

narrated on the big screen. Historical drama
- which stories are selected, who tells them
and how they are told - can reveal, enlighten
and trigger our consciousness.

So we must exercise caution in our

excitement, being ever mindful that the
directors are the author of their own writing
of history and come with their own world
view. We tend to accept films, especially
documentary style ones, as giving us a truth
about the world. And many of these historical
dramas do offer a truth. But we must be ever
cautious that this is not an objective truth but
just another point of view.

4 of 6 1/8/2020, 10:29 PM
Historical dramas can trigger and enlighten our consciousness - The National https://www.thenational.ae/opinion/historical-dramas-can-trigger-and-enl...

Hidden Figures tells the story of three African-American

mathematicians who played a vital role in Nasa in its early
years. Hopper Stone / Twentieth Century Fox

What makes it onto our screens is, itself, a

point of view through which stories should be
told. In the English language, we don’t have
much about the Middle East and its history.
We know almost nothing about South-East
Asia. Such stories are almost never told by
those whose interests are vested in other
regions and other narratives. We still await
stories on the silver screen told by Muslim
women and their experiences.

____________________

Read more from Opinion

Trump must heed the lessons of

Charlottesville

Editorial: We must not be selective in our

condemnation of extremism

____________________

We truly believe the histories of our films.

5 of 6 1/8/2020, 10:29 PM
Historical dramas can trigger and enlighten our consciousness - The National https://www.thenational.ae/opinion/historical-dramas-can-trigger-and-enl...

Soft, subtle and engaging, the narratives

take hold of us and shape our world view.
After all, only a handful of us will leave the
screen and dig deeper. Instead, all too often,
we accord film and TV a kind of respect for
offering us some truth about the world in
which we live. And sometimes, even if we
know there is a vested point of view, films
often become our baseline for understanding
the world.

This means that when we stay in to watch a

film, we are not passive consumers. We are
witnesses to the creation of a new popular
history.

Follow the National's Opinion section on

Twitter

Updated: September 14, 2017 11:47 AM

6 of 6 1/8/2020, 10:29 PM