Closet Land
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| Closet Land | |
 Promotional movie poster for the film |
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| Directed by | Radha Bharadwaj |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Brian Grazer Ron Howard |
| Written by | Radha Bharadwaj |
| Starring | Madeleine Stowe Alan Rickman |
| Music by | Richard Einhorn Philip Glass |
| Cinematography | Bill Pope |
| Editing by | Lisa Zeno Churgin |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures Imagine Entertainment |
| Release date(s) |  March 6, 1991 September 10 (Toronto Film Festival) June 1, 1994 February 25, 1999 |
| Running time | 89 min. |
| Country | U.S.A. |
| Language | English |
Closet Land is a 1991 independent film directed by Radha Bharadwaj. It stars Madeleine Stowe as a young author of children's books and Alan Rickman as a ruthless interrogator. Because Media Home Entertainment and Fox Video distributed the film on video, Universal Pictures released it instead of 20th Century Fox.
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[edit] Synopsis
Stowe's character is taken from her home in the middle of the night, accused of embedding anarchistic messages into her particular book, entitled Closet Land. The book is a story about a child who, as a result of bad behaviour, has been locked in a closet as punishment. While in there, the child is greeted by a group of childhood ally archetypes who innocently attempt to comfort the scared little girl. The seemingly simple content is questioned by the government, which accuses the author of encouraging and introducing anarchism among its audience of naïve children. While the interrogator is obstinate in his belief that the author is guilty of hidden propaganda, the audience is convinced of the victim's innocence. The audience later learns that the novel was actually created as a form of escapism, providing a coping mechanism for the author, who endured sexual abuse as a child. Near the end of the film, the interrogator claims that he was the man who had sexually abused the author in her childhood. But one cannot be entirely sure he was the one who abused her, as the film suggests he was just using the abuse against her as a way of breaking her down.
[edit] Behind the scenes
The script was Radha Bharadwaj's winning submission to The Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting program in 1989. The Nicholl Fellowships are run by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
It is left up to the viewer as to whether Stowe's character has in fact run afoul of the Government — or, alternatively, that the Interrogator is acting alone. Stowe's and Rickman's characters are the only ones visible during the course of the film.
The film takes place in a purposely unspecified country, and is quite reminiscent of George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. The film exhibits the use of brutal and inhumane torture to coerce confessions from innocent victims. The human rights organization Amnesty International served as consultants for the film.
Madeleine Stowe and Alan Rickman are the only credited cast in the film.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Closet Land at the Internet Movie Database
- Closet Land at Allmovie
- Closet Land Writer/director Radha Bharadwaj's personal web site, includes an essay written by Bharadwaj about her film
