Documentary Preview | Sagolgi Eigi Wari

Manipur usually makes it to the headlines because of (a) Irom Sharmila (b) The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (c) Economic blockade (d) Army atrocities. All four intertwined realities of the beleaguered north-eastern state come together in Sunzu Bachaspatimayum’s documentary Sagolgi Eigi Wari(Pony And Me), along with (e) the Manipuri pony, the equine breed widely found in these parts. Bachaspatimayum’s 52-minute film, which will be shown on 1 September at the Public Service Broadcasting Trust’s Open Frame film festival, starting 29 August in New Delhi, braids together footage of civil unrest, protests by various ethnic groups and army encounters with wistful shots of beautiful horses running around masterless, feeding on garbage, and generally looking lost.

Bachaspatimayum, a journalist and documentary film-maker, says there are many parallels between the horses, which are members of a dying breed, and the people of the conflict-riven state. “We pride ourselves for having given polo to the British, but nothing is being done to save the horses on whose backs polo was invented,” he said in a phone interview from Imphal, where he lives and works. “Many of the ponies are dying because the garbage is choking their system. Many things are going extinct in Manipur, but nobody cares. The condition of the horses and the people of the state is very similar—they are merely silent victims or observers.”

The horses provide the only moments of relief from the brutal reality of the all-too-regular clashes between civilians and police, civilians and army officials (the latter often in the dock for abusing their powers), and Meiteis, Kukis and Nagas with each other. Bachaspatimayum has been shooting the conflict in Manipur for the past decade in order to maintain a personal and professional record of its troubles. “I have been maintaining a video archive of what is happening in Manipur, since I felt that I need to tell the story of what is happening here,” he says. The story is depressing—one with no discernible end in sight for either human or beast.

The film-maker has additional footage of the horses, saved for another film perhaps. More worrying for him is that there is no solution in sight for the intricately knotted territorial and ideological issues that characterize the Manipur insurgency. “We have more than 39 ethnic diverse communities, and it is a very complex problem,” says the 46-year-old film-maker. “And if you live here, it gets even more complicated.”

Open Frame will be held from 29 August-2 September, 10am-8/9pm, at the India International Centre, Lodi Estate, New Delhi. It is free and open to all. For details, visit www.psbt.org