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The World Unseen

Totally toothless

By PETER KEOUGH | April 30, 2008

1.5 Stars

THE-WORLD-UNSEENinside

The World Unseen

Unlike the Men’s Opening Night Film in the Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, which opts for the lighter side with a raunchy rom-com, the ladies’ opener is a plushy, stodgy, didactic period melodrama. First-time director Shamim Sarif adapts her own novel set in South Africa in 1952. Free-spirited — she wears pants and a fedora — Armina (Sheetal Sheth), an Indian immigrant and therefore “colored” in the apartheid cast system, runs the Location Café, where colored and black and the occasional white can dine and dance — i.e., a multicultural paradise. Miriam (Lisa Ray), who’s also Indian, kow-tows to her traditional role as wife and mother. Will the love of these two go unfulfilled? Representing the bad guys are Miriam’s husband, who’s bullying, cowardly, hypocritical, and adulterous. And two awful policemen enforcing the draconian regime. Everything is chaste, tasteful, beautifully photographed, and totally toothless. The ladies should demand something better. 94 minutes | MFA: May 8

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Topics: Reviews , Lisa Ray , Sheetal Sheth

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