The Kathmandu Post, Dec 7, 2002
 
The Living of Jogimara  

...Screened only to the invitees, the premiere of The Living of Jogimara reduced most of the audience to tears. Directed, scripted and produced by Mohan Mainali, the 38-minute movie is a moving account of the residents of Jogimara village who lost their dear ones on an apparently faulty ambush of the Royal Nepal Army.

Four days after the government forces suffered the most shocking setback in the form of a Maoist attack at Mangalsen, the headquarters of Achham district, early this year, the Nepali media was flooded with the news that the security forces had gunned down 76 Maoist rebels in Kalikot. Were all of them or any of them Maoists? The Living of Jagimara raises and to a fair extent answers this question. About 20 sons of Jogimara village had left their homes to work as labourers at the on-construction airport in the district Kalikot. It took them six days to reach there. Scared stiff by the intensity of labour asked of them, a few of them returned back much to the joy of their families. The remaining 17 were killed by the Royal Nepal Army. The dead bodies did not reach their families. Neither did the families receive any compensation for the losses. And to add to their suffering, their sons, husbands and fathers have been branded as terrorists.

The heart-rending documentary captures the plight of a village that is now full of widows and orphans. The villagers are small farmers who toil day-in and day-out to make ends meet. The strong ones are dead now. There are only the old, women and children left in the village who do not know how to manage the dual tragedy of losing their dear ones and having to immediately devise a way of earning a living. Death of a dear one is a hard thing to accept. And when there is nothing substantial to prove it except for the news aired by the radio and television, it is still harder. Should one confer the death rites upon invisible bodies? Is it not really possible that they might not be dead? It is a maddening question, especially for the villagers at Jogimara who cannot help hoping that their dear ones will certainly come back.

“I am not performing the death rites,” says a villager who lost his son, “perhaps he will come back.” “I have already performed the rites but I’ll undo it when he comes back,” says another. “Our house caught fire last year. My husband left with a promise that he would bring money to repair it. Who will repair it now,” asks a widow. Questions to which there are no answers!

The Living of Jogimara is a movie of the dead and their families who are almost as dead. For what is death if not the absence of life? And are the people of Jogimara more alive than the deceased? This movie is not only the tale of a singular case, but also a representative of many colossal tragedies that unfolds daily in many a villages and towns of the war-torn country.
 
 
 
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Himal Khabarpatrika
Rituraj in his column Ritubichar 
 
Have we lost the right to weep, too?

Jogimaraka Jyundaharu (The Living of Jogimara) is a documentary made by journalist Mohan Mainali for the Centre for Investigative Journalism. “Jyunda” literally means the living, but ironically the film is about 17 young men from Jogimara village in Dhading district who were killed by security forces while they were building an airport in Kalikot. The story is linked through the narratives of their widows, fathers, mothers, sons and uncles. They all lost their breadwinners and the effect on Jogimara has been devastating.

Mainali’s film documents the grief, the loss and chronicles how the families and the village coped with the loss of not even getting the bodies of their relatives back. The story of this community was first published in Himal Khabarpatrika and Nepali Times (#106).

Jogimara premiered recently at the Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival 2002. The documentary proved to be so popular that two additional screenings at the Russian Cultural Centre played to full houses. Many in the audience couldn’t hold back their tears, and many were so moved that they asked how they could help the relatives of the dead.

However, the government didn’t share the audience’s empathy. It made its displeasure known by harassing the festival organisers and even the film director. Groups of uniformed policemen made their presence felt at the festival venue. There was a demand for the tape and plainclothes policemen were asking questions. Finally, a phone call from a higher-up authority directed the film not be shown at all.

When an “incompetent” government declared an “emergency” in November last year, it started a process of eroding our fundamental rights. Now, with a “clean” government and a rescinded emergency, it seems we aren’t allowed to watch a movie and grieve for our fellow Nepalis. Have we lost the right to weep, too?
 

 
 
 
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