Thousands of Nepali youth – General Z (and powerful Extra) – captured government buildings in Kathmandu, attacked the former Prime Minister and sitting foreign minister in their homes, and set fire to ministries, courts, and a media house – smoke felt like a new sky, and someone wrote to me: “Felt like protests by Jane Zade:” White sunThe climax of. While growing up, children take the body to the river ”.
My 2016 film White sun – Venice’s Interfilm Award winner – A story about a hill route, a dead father and two sons of the opposite sides of our war. Adults argue whether to take the body out of a window or door, take it with a flag that represents the king or without, two sons defeated each other; The elderly refuse the help of “lower castes”; Police and rebels go aim to guns; The body is located there like no country wants to claim any claim. To children – quietly – pull the body to the river.
Children who still carry a dead body in the river with the Nepali film ‘White Sun’ (2016). , Photo Credit: Courtesy Deepak Rauniyar
I set it in 2015, when Kathmandu burnt candles for a new constitution while living in the southern grounds, where I am, families burnt the Pars. On paper, we became secular, federal, democratic; In daily life, the ghost of the old order still fell asleep in our rooms.
I must be happy now – this gene Z “revolution” and the first female Prime Minister of Nepal. Picture of taking oath – a woman looked like a frame among men Pooja, sir (Venice Film Festival 2024 Premier). My heart knows how to celebrate; I have questions in my head.
Live through revolutions
I was born under autocracy, saw war and “revolutions”, and saw that democracy was kidnapped more than once. I am Madhesi. In Kathmandu, which often makes you “Indian”: stopped, questioned, laughed, refused. Before the bullying started, I understood what is the declaration of my surname or skin color.
Still from ‘White Sun’. , Photo Credit: Courtesy Deepak Rauniyar
When I was growing up, there was a small ‘king’ in every neighborhood (an informal head that decided who was freed after the fight). One night, as I washed the plates and a Brahmin ment poured water, a kick sent me flying; And an alcoholic king chased the Brahmin boy through the village. This is a picture of “law and order” in my head.
I was 12 years old during the 1990 movement. I remember small changes: no Sanskrit class, no ‘long live the king’ anthem. But soon the same king was again elected to the heads of the village; People like my father – an orphan that took Chinese sacks in rivers – they were beaten or jailed; There was still no wall in school; Progress looked far away.
I went to college, wrote for a local paper, then national, then Radio Nepal. When I returned, once my rib painful chief invited me to dinner. Then I learned the soft power of the media.
through the lens
However, our cinema made me angry. Our life was not on screen; Madhisis was a joke. There was no film school, no connection. Therefore, I wrote about cinema only to stand on the set. Nabin Subba Numafang (2001) gave me my first film job; Tsering rhitar sherpa Karma (2006) My film became school. In those editing, I found Asha Magrati – my love and colleague. We started Aadi films and kept going.
Asha Magarati (Center) still from the film ‘Pooja, Sir’ (2024). , Photo Credit: Courtesy Deepak Rauniyar
Civil war wide (1996–2006). The royal family was massacred. The dictatorship returned as King Gyanendra. I lost friends. More than 17,000 people lost their lives in the war. Then came 2006. People rose. I filmed the revolution. On the surface, it seemed citizen; On the frontline, you can see the Maoist cadres. Parliament returned. Crown left the palace.
We felt like winners: a secular, federal, democratic republic – at least, on paper. A Madhesi (Ceremonial) Chairman. Maoists won. but as White sun The shows invited to the changes produced under the gun, inviting pushbacks. Not everyone was happy. Across the border, political voices like Yogi Adityanath ask to bring back the king.
In Janakpur, filming Pooja, sir, I saw the things I could not ignore: saffron flags, boys were drilled like cadets, police were trying to stop Hindu-Muslim clashes, journalists scared or indifferent. Philosopher Frontz Fanon wrote: “The colony of colonial colonial colonial place”. I saw it at home. Leaders who topped the monarchy played the king.
Make sounds
My three features since 2012 – Highway, White sun, Pooja, sir -There are trilogy after the war. My first little, Outpost (2008), I have faced heavy censorship. For Pooja, sirWe were cut by 19: KP Sharma Draw an archial clip of Oli, avoid “Prime” Mute, Hindi and “India” in the Prime Minister. The black frame where there should be memory – this is also violence.
Posters of films that make up after the war of Deepak Rauniyar: ‘Highway’, ‘White Sun’ and ‘Pooja, Sir’, have been created in the last two decades. , Photo Credit: Courtesy IMDB
So when General Z protests began-I was not surprised against a socio-media ban and corruption. Then, the morning of 8 September shook me. Dozens were killed by police firing. City burn: Court, home, a media office was swallowed by smoke. Late night meetings at the army headquarters after the flood of claims, a television address before a royal picture, talks that the presidential came under pressure, and reports that leadership and disintegration decisions emerged from closed rooms. Images showed a controversial royalist with the army chief; Some gene-z data said they boycotted the conversation; Others said that they were bypassed.
A city of lights
I have seen 10 years of war and opposition in the plains – hundreds of thousands and nothing went on in the streets. Now, a small, most unarmed crowd overturned so quickly? If the intervention was coming, why so long? Why was so much already broken – especially with the regiment posted on those government grounds? Where was the command series? Who gave the order? When so many young lives were lost at the center of Kathmandu – violence we expected with long roads of the grounds, not the door of the capital – deepened the questions. An army sheet was washed away in our phone; Many people explained time, not responsibility.
Shooting of a rear scenes of filming of ‘Pooja, Sir’. , Photo Credit: Courtesy Deepak Rauniyar
Perhaps, a silver lining: Without this breakdown, we could wait for a woman to hold the post of Prime Minister for decades. We seek a situation that understands that dissatisfaction loves with a thick pronunciation, and for our children – Pahdi, Madhesi, Janajati, Dalit – to go to school without any fear. I make films as small torches. I would like a city of lights.
If in child White sun The body is dragged into the river, maybe General Z has burnt the pyre. Now there is smoke in our eyes, our chest pain, knowing that something is over, and fear will be reborn. Can we let the old ghost go? Can the reel remain real this time?
The author is a Nepali filmmaker and Associate Professor of Practice at the University of Boston.
