A new Australian movie transcends the norm in its portrayal of a contemporary marriage and motherhood.
By Bridget Spinks
NEW Australian movie The Waiting City first came about when writer-director Claire McCarthy did some volunteer work with Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity.
That first trip in 2002 to film her sister Helena’s experiences volunteering with the Sisters allowed Claire to see the world of parenting and adopting from the perspective of those who couldn’t conceive a child.
This formed the seedbed for ideas behind the script and plot for The Waiting City, the first Australian film to be shot entirely on location in Calcutta.
Claire noticed a trend of “middle class Western couples needing to adopt children” which intrigued and provoked her to think what it means when Westerners choose to delay having children.
While making the documentary and on subsequent trips, Claire began interviewing these couples who had been through IVF programs or who had tried to adopt children, or had adopted children and from there she developed a database of different experiences.
The story behind The Waiting City developed from these encounters.
It follows the route a married Australian couple, Ben (Joel Edgerton) and Fiona (Radha Mitchell) take to parenthood. When they come to India, Ben is a struggling artist and coming out of depression while Fiona, who is a lawyer, brings her work with her to India to ‘run a case’ in between meetings to pick up their adopted daughter.
Themes of motherhood, fatherhood, fertility, infertility and adoption are explored through Ben and Fiona’s relationship; estrangement within their relationship and their journey to parenthood.
“The film’s primarily a love story and a portrait of a marriage; especially a contemporary marriage,” Claire McCarthy said.
The setting of India, specifically in the context of Calcutta, was deliberate because it’s an extreme environment which could “push the buttons of a couple and provoke them,” she said.
The film offers hope for couples because the process of adopting the child transforms Ben and Fiona and their relationship.
“India cracks them open; India allows them to see each other and the world from a different viewpoint,” she said.
“They find the better part of themselves and the willingness to love each other more selflessly,” she said.
“Each person is capable of transformation and change and of offering more than they think they can,” Claire told The Record.
The couple arrives in the middle of the Durga Puja, a celebration of the Hindu goddess Durga. The street parades and lively atmosphere sweeps them along Calcutta’s streets as they try to reach Lakshmi, their new child.
Through documentary filming techniques, including filming some scenes in semi-vérité fashion, Claire McCarthy, with cinematographer Denson Baker and the crew was able to create a poetic ode to Calcutta.
The airport official at the start of the film and later the pharmacist are real people, who were hired to play out the scene as they normally would, bringing an authenticity to the film that wouldn’t otherwise be there.
The Indian wedding scene, too, was orchestrated by approaching a local couple who had been married for two years.
“They renewed their vows and we had a Hindi priest there who conducted the ceremony completely correct as to how it should be. Everything was as authentic as it would be within a Bengali wedding,” Claire said.
Through the film, a variety of people with different religions intersect in the story. In one sequence there is a Hindi priest, a Muslim doctor and Catholic nuns together in one place and also a couple of Westerners, Ben and Fiona, who have little or no formal religion. “It was important to me to demonstrate a pluralism of religious expression and to demonstrate different ways of doing things in a way that was quite traditional,” she said.
“Film is a departure point for discussion, not a place to be told what to think,” she said.
Claire McCarthy also told The Record that she was very inspired by the Missionaries of Charity and “the paradox of beauty and love that can be found in poverty”.
“It was exciting to have the opportunity to work with the Missionaries of Charity, to rewrite them into a film for a mainstream audience and offer spirituality in film as entertainment,” she said.
In this film, the Missionaries of Charity have a central although not always visible role in that the Sisters care for Lakshmi and other children until their adoptive parents arrive.
The love that the Sisters give to those for whom they care comes through loud and clear.
When Ben and Fiona have to make a decision about the child, Missionary of Charity Sr Tesilla lets them know that the decision they make must keep in mind what is best for the child rather than themselves. “I’ve nursed her since she was a baby; she’s my child too,” Sr Tesilla tells Ben and Fiona. “You must act out of love, not desperation or need.”
“Love is our mandate to each other,” Claire McCarthy said.
“It transcends culture and creed; to find that level of divine in each other is a gift. It’s as much about celebrating differences as honouring what’s unique about someone,” she said.
The Waiting City is released by Hopscotch and has been in cinemas nationwide since 15 July.
A word of caution
The Waiting City is recommended for viewing by Mature audiences. It deals with adult themes and includes a sex scene.