Usually, a documentary filmed from Fort Kochi and Mattancherry tends to lean heavily on the tourism angle. Not Slaves of the Empire though…

Tourism and the gaze of the tourist, in my opinion, are always about distancing. This work, though there is a colonial background to it, is ultimately a human story. We were focusing on that — on the characters, their lives. That said, towards the end, we try to place it in the larger Fort Kochi context by showing several famous places there — Lilly Street, Calavathy Road, Jew Street, and the Dutch Cemetery there. To make this ‘larger context’ more apparent, we used a lens with a bigger aspect ratio (i.e. more widescreen) to map this, thus lending a cinematic experience.

Interestingly, Slaves of the Empire also weaves in a segment wherein the work-in-progress film is screened at Dhobi Khana…

You see, this work we did, it’s my version of their story. Their lives. A filmmaker can’t claim to be the only authentic voice. In fact, he is an outsider. His work is only a glimpse. So, in having that screened to the very people it is based of, I’m, for the lack of a better word, validating the work.

Including that screening into the film only felt like the natural thing to do. To show to the audience that this, too, is a fiction of sorts. When the screening segment rolls, the audience, too, is shaken up into the real. It is as if, until then, they had been watching a movie.

Indeed, in that segment, Prattiamma is seen asking, what happened to the other shots you took…

Yes, it is a very political question. The filmmaker is put on the spot and asked what happened to the other shots he had taken. But this only confirms the idea that what was shown is only version of the story. And also that, there’s more to be seen and learnt about the history and lives of the Dhobi Khana workers.