“Shame has descended on the girl’s house because of this boy, so why would it be wrong for him to marry her?” This sentence, candidly launched by an Indian villager in the documentary To Kill a Tigersummarizes the long way to go to fight gang rapes in a country where a rape is reported every 20 minutes and where the conviction rate is less than 30%.
When a 13-year-old girl is raped by three young men, shame falls on her and her family. The village chief and the inhabitants, men and women, are unanimous, there is only one solution: to marry the young girl to one of her attackers. But the teenager, traumatized, does not hear it that way. And something extremely rare, her father, Ranjit, chooses to defy the authority of the village to come to the defense of his daughter.
“He’s a real hero”, summarizes the documentary filmmaker Nisha Pahuja, who has chosen to follow this father, an ordinary rice farmer, in his extraordinary quest. The Toronto filmmaker was following a team of activists from the Srijan Foundation for Gender Equality in India when she met Ranjit, just days after her daughter was raped.
For a little over two hours, we follow the quest of this man, visibly overwhelmed by events. When the story hits the papers, he — not the three men who raped a teenage girl — is blamed for bringing shame to the village.
“In India, especially in the villages, life is very much rooted in the community. The honor of the village is very important, because that is how they survive. That’s why what Ranjit did was so brave, because it involved his own survival,” Ms.me Pahuja interviewed on Zoom.
Intimidation and threats
The villagers interviewed in the documentary seem to have more pity for the attackers, who are imprisoned during the legal proceedings, than for the young girl, who is accused of all wrongs. “A girl always has her share of responsibility”, summarizes the village chief.
And while everyone is worried that no man will want to marry the ‘disgraced teenager’ from now on, no one except activists from the Srijan Foundation is showing the slightest interest in what she’s been through. , wonders about the impact of a gang rape on a child or is interested in what she wants. “She is still a minor, she knows nothing of the world. What she wants, what she doesn’t want, she is not able to know, ”says the chef.
During the legal proceedings, which last for many months, Ranjit and his family will suffer contempt and will be victims of threats and intimidation from the families of the defendants and other villagers. We feel his distress, his loneliness, his fear. He is tired, can’t sleep at night, overwhelmed by the threats hanging over him and his family. “There were definitely times when we felt like he was going to give up, that he was going to succumb to the pressure,” says Mme Pahuja. But he kept fighting, against all odds.
“My daughter always says: rather die than give up,” Ranjit emotionally tells the camera to explain his determination. If a girl so young can be so brave…” A smile forms on her face. “When I think of her, my fear disappears. »
A “terrifying” ordeal
In front of the courts, where he presents himself fresh shaven, with a new shirt made to measure, Ranjit is disoriented. We feel his fears: how will he manage to be taken seriously, he, a simple farmer? The three defendants, for their part, seem to take it all lightly, even making threats to the film crew. “When I’m out, I’ll take this camera and teach them a lesson,” says one of the young people with contempt.
These threats resonated in the village, where angry residents gathered around M’s team.me Pahuja in Ranjit’s house. “It was really terrifying,” she says in an interview.
However, she had seen the tension rising and knew that there was a risk that it exploded. “But when it happened, I felt great shame. I felt like a dog in a china shop. I understood that we were creating suffering, ”she admits, still troubled by this assault and looking for the words to express a feeling that is difficult to define.
“Of course, when you think of these people, you think they’re wrong, but for them, that’s the truth. They are trying to preserve a system that is important to them. And I felt, in a certain way, that I had created interference in an ecosystem, she summarizes. As a documentary filmmaker, there are times when you are confronted with ethical questions: nothing is ever black or white. But if India can teach you anything, it’s how complicated the world is and how complex the cultures and systems are. »