Aryana Mohammed’s short film on the Venezuelan migrant woman experience screened at the Toronto Fringe Festival
There’s a particularly powerful moment in the short film Mangoes from the Valley where the protagonist presses the titular fruit to her face and inhales deeply. The fragrance is like comfort and rejuvenation all in one.
“In Venezuela, when they run out of food, they eat mangoes to sustain themselves. It's reminiscent of her homeland,” says Aryana Mohammed, the 27-year-old director of Mangoes.
The moment reflects the essence of the empathy-driven work, which was shown this past July at the Toronto Fringe Festival. It was produced by JuneBug Productions.
Mohammed, a psychology student at UWI St Augustine, says Mangoes explores “the topic of prostitution among Venezuelan migrants because it is rarely discussed at a national level”, adding that “I wanted to highlight the risks that these women face because of the hypersexualised stereotypes that are associated with them.”
The film stars Renee King, who gives a potent, one-person performance that takes the protagonist on a journey of isolation, exhaustion, sorrow, and even a gruesome, simulated sexual assault.
“It was written with the intent of being a one-woman show with no words,” says Mohammed. “Firstly, I did not want to assign a face to the perpetrator in the film because there is no physique or skin tone associated with a rapist. In reality, it can be anyone. Also, for women who experience trauma such as this, sometimes there are no words to describe the experience. So using sound, movement, body language, and gestures, I attempted to create something that goes past words.”
The director explains that she wanted to provide a window into the moment and let audiences decide because there have been “instances where doubt is cast on victims and the legitimacy of their stories”.
Mangoes originated in 2019 as a play for the MICRO-Theatre Festival of Trinidad and Tobago. The theme for the festival that year was "Building Human Empathy", with a particular focus on improving relations between Venezuelan migrants and the people of T&T. Subsequently, Mohammed was approached by dramatist Danielle Lewis, who had been selected by the Toronto Fringe Festival lottery to showcase a theatrical piece. Lewis (producer of Mangoes), who is also an adjunct lecturer at UWI St Augustine’s Department of Creative and Festival Arts (DCFA), heard about Mohammed's play from fellow actor, educator and UWI alum Tafar Chia Lewis.
So, Mangoes was turned into a film and shown at the Toronto Fringe festival, one of the most recognised events of its kind showcasing the work of emerging and diverse artists.
“I knew that taking a play like this and turning it into a short film would not necessarily be easy but it definitely brought unexpected challenges,” says Mohammed. “Actually, we had to shoot the film twice. So it was difficult to meet the deadline for submission but somehow we made it. The film received really good reviews. I was surprised, given the experimental/surrealistic nature of the film.”
Mohammed and her collaborators are currently taking a break from the project. They intend however to revisit the film, make some edits and send it to other film festivals. She is still quite busy with her degree programme at UWI:
“Psychology and art both explore the human condition, just from different viewpoints. My time studying at UWI has helped to broaden my perspective. It has provided a greater understanding of the human psyche and this knowledge assists in my character development process when writing plays.”
She also has other creative ambitions. For the last few years, she has been working with a friend on a short, comedic film. Mohammed, who has been involved in the arts since age 5, starting first with classical Indian dance, has spent most of her life moving in a creative direction, even though she was good at sciences in secondary school.
“It was my quiet rebellion, I think.”
The spirit of rebellion is on display in Mangoes, a film that refuses to turn away from the harshness of the migrant woman’s experience. The spirit of empathy is just as strong.
