Toronto Film Scene Review

Review: Snow

Writer/director Rohan Fernando explores loss, love, and finding your place in the world with Snow. When Parvati’s (Kalista Zackhariyas) family is killed in the 2004 South Asian tsunami, she must move to Halifax to live with relatives. She struggles to become accustomed to her new life in Canada while dealing with such a tragic and traumatic experience, but she eventually finds friends in unlikely places along the way.

Interestingly, most of the actors in this film are amateurs who were hired based on their own experiences in life, and how well those experiences fit the roles they played. In fact, lead actress Kalista Zackhariyas is one of the few people in the film with previous acting experience. Considering this, all the performances are quite well executed. Director Rohan Fernando lets each actor form his or her own role, instead of forcing ideas and traits onto them. This leads to the creation of some pleasantly genuine characters and works perfectly with the documentary style in which the film is shot. It’s a natural progression for Fernando, who has had previous success in documentaries Cecil’s Journey (a Gemini Award-nominated short), and Blood and Water. It was his work on Blood and Water, a documentary about Fernando’s uncle traveling back to Sri Lanka after losing his wife and daughter to the tsunami, that planted the seeds for Snow.

Some viewers may find it difficult to connect with Parvati’s story. The isolation she feels while having to live in another country may not be something that all of us have experienced. Many of us, however, can certainly understand the feeling of loneliness. While the exact experience may change from person to person, the emotions that loneliness evokes are the same. Parvati’s family in Halifax don’t exactly help her deal with her new Canadian life. Her aunt tries to explain that Parvati now has more life choices available to her than she did before, while her uncle tries to force his lifestyle on Parvati (this includes introducing Parvati to a friend of the family that her uncle thinks would be a perfect husband). It’s this kind of pressure that causes Parvati to make some bad decisions.

Unfortunately, Parvati’s choices aren’t fully justified and seem somewhat non-sensical. Is she simply naive in a new country? Has the tsunami has seriously affected her, or has her uncle simply pushed her too far? This confusion only makes a connection with her character an even greater challenge. It isn’t a stretch to think that someone could make a bad decision in life. The problem is that Parvati’s choices seem unbelievable, no matter what her reasoning may be. This includes a love affair with a hotel guest she meets at work, and her friendship with a homeless woman.

Throughout the film, we see Parvati recall how she tried to save her sister during the tsunami. Perhaps this might be the reason that she connects with such troubled people like the hotel guest or the homeless woman (she was unable to save her sister, but maybe there is something she can do for them). Director Fernando has said that Parvati is “like a newborn when she wakes up in Canada”, and this could also explain each bad choice she makes.

Certainly, our lives are full of moments that don’t necessarily work out the way we envisioned as we learn and slowly become the people we are. I may not be able to agree with the things that Parvati does, or even understand why she does them, but I can see how it’s all a part of her learning and growing processes. Like that newborn, Parvati must find her own way, even if it leads to a few bad outcomes.

Snow opens February 24 at the Cumberland Theatres in Toronto.

 

http://thetfs.ca/2012/02/24/review-snow/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TorontoFilmScene+%28Toronto+Film+Scene%29

Anokhi Magazine Interview with Director Rohan Fernando

Online Exclusive Up Close with Rohan Fernando

We chat with the director, writer and producer of SNOW

Rohan Fernando (Writer/Director)

We had a quick one-on-one chat with Rohan Fernando, the writer, director and producer of his first feature film, SNOW. This Sri Lankan Halifax native discusses the art of making movies, his first feature and how it’s all about being in the present.

SNOW stars Kalista Zackhariyas, Ria Mae, Mohan Fernando, Achala Hewaarachchi, Himaly Fernando, Pardis Parker, Sobaz Benjamin & Alicia Orr MacDonald
Written & Directed by Rohan Fernando
Produced by Rohan Fernando & Suzanne Lively
Executive Produced by Ann Bernier
Composer: Aasif Illyas

Having a release of your first feature film must be exciting!

Yeah it is really exciting. We’ve been to festival audiences in the past with the film, but it seems very different to do a theatrical run. I guess in someways, there is a lot more pressure. In festivals you always have that guaranteed festival crowd. Now you are more like a lamb amidst a pack of wolves.

Where was SNOW shot:

The opening scene, the prologue [takes place] in Sri Lanka. That was actually shot in Belize. That was because our budget was very tight and we couldn’t go to Sri Lanka with my actors. I was in Belize shooting another documentary so I took advantage of that. We built the interior of the hut in Nova Scotia.

How was the shooting experience?

The shooting schedule was eighteen days and I also worked with the actors in advance because a lot of them hadn’t been in front of camera before. So I wanted to workshop for five days prior to shooting. It was intense and there was a lot of stuff to figure out with the characters and their relationship and what was possible for these non-actors to do. A lot of changes happened to the script [during filming] because I wanted them to be natural when they were acting. A lot of the characters shifted a bit, [making them] closer to the kind of people they are in themselves.

Kalista Zackhariyas as Parvati

How was it like working with Kalista Zackhariyas whom featured in our magazine, while she was working on the movie.

It was funny, when I first met her she was coached by Menakshi the casting director that I hired. When she came in [to the audition] she was dressed very humbly in terms of the character (Parvati). There is a real intensity about her. She has a real strength to her. And I didn’t know what she was like in real life because she came in already in character. She auditioned amazingly well and it wasn’t until after I met her than I saw that she wasn’t this passive character. She is such a strong personality it was really electric in what came across on her face, her eyes and in her movements.

You shot this film in Cinema Verité style, what made you gravitate towards that kind of filmmaking?

I knew that I was going to be working with non-actors and wanted to give them as much freedom in movement as possible. So they weren’t trying to remember their blocking, hit their focus points and deliver their lines on this point and that point — which can come across as very stilted.

I wanted fluidity from them and to go with themselves. I wanted the camera to play to them and not play to the camera. I shot a lot of my documentaries myself because it allows that kind of intimacy and you can react in the moment to what the character is doing. I really wanted to have that immediacy approach. It feels like the moment is captured rather than set up.

Tell me about the importance of a good screenplay.

A well-written screenplay is the foundation. You can’t take a bad screenplay and make a good film. You can take a good screenplay and make a bad film. It sets the ideas that you are going to be playing with and bringing [them] to life. Particularly for me, dialogue is very important. Here, the dialogue was quite minimal because I came from a visual background as I was a painter and [had also] published a graphic novel.

It also helped the non-actors as I didn’t have them say too much. There was a lot of dialogue that I did take out because the quality of Kalista’s performance said so much that sometimes the words got in the way of the emotions.

So you, keeping the non-actors in mind, were rewriting every day?

It was rewritten all along the way. Probably because I come from a documentary background where the treatment is different from the footage that you get because you don’t have control of the situation. I rewrote the film again with the material that I had during the editing process. Post-production was very long because of that reason. With five to six months of editing, I wanted to give it a lot of space and time for it to breathe and come back to it.

Achala Hewaarachchi as Lakshmi

Love to hear your thoughts on the captivating music, which to me also played an essential character in this film.

I wanted the music to also be very in the moment as well. Parvati is about being in the moment. She doesn’t have a path anymore and her future is completely unknown. She totally exists in the present tense.

The quality of listening to the tabla and Indian classical music is [being] in the moment. You don’t necessarily know where the music is going so it puts you in a state. I wanted to do this in the film. Asif Illyas, the composer, who is also from Sri Lanka, literally played live to the image intuitively. I would direct him like an actor. It wasn’t a constructed piece of music. It was Parvati’s thoughts [and her] mental emotional process. We wanted certain instruments and sounds to represent aspects of her emotions. The sitar represented her present state, the esraj represented the underwater experiences and her memories. Once he had that down, then he would add layers. Asif won best music at Atlantic Film Festival for SNOW and in 2003 for [my first film] Cecil’s Journey.

What made you decide to move from documentary filmmaking to feature filmmaking with SNOW?

I was working in documentaries for 10 years and was always drawn to the dramatic side of documentary filmmaking. However, there are certain limitations with documentaries that you have to deal with. For instance, you can only achieve a certain amount of intimacy without crossing ethical boundaries with your subjects. I did a documentary on a man who lost his wife and daughter to the 2004 Tsunami in Sri Lanka. I saw profound emotion with that kind of loss and I wanted to go in there deeper. So I attempted to write what I felt that experience might be like, not having gone through that myself, but am able to relate to it with various losses I myself have gone through.

What advice would you give to upcoming filmmakers?

I certainly had resistance going in to this [field] but I think if you really want to do it, you have to rebel and take those choices. Part of being a filmmaker is about being a rebel and you have to go down the road less travelled. You don’t necessarily have to go film school. You can start making films. And write. One of the things with young filmmakers because of the technology that is available today, don’t develop the skills to write a good script. That is the core. And it teaches you so much. It teaches you about dialogue, editing and character which all have to be in the script.

SNOW is being released today, February 24, 2012 in Toronto and will be part of a nationwide roll out in select cities. For more information go to http://www.snowthefilm.com

BY HINA P. ANSARI / POSTED FEBRUARY 24, 2012

http://anokhimagazine.com/online-exclusives/close-rohan-fernando

South Asian Generation Next Article

Snow: Journey of Transformation from Passivity to Taking Charge

Posted on 23 February 2012 by admin

“ ..When I go back to visit Sri Lanka, yes there is over-arching tragedy that the civil war implicates, but at the same time it’s a country like anywhere else where people live day to day lives and have the same kind of human journey that you have anywhere..”

Photo By: Holly Crooks

“..In terms of being passive, I’m quite a contrast from this character and there was a struggle in achieving that but I was able to bring some of my experiences to it by my own upbringing..”

Photo By: Holly Crooks

Snow is a film for a lot of different people, not just immigrants or people dealing with a natural disaster. Like Breakaway, it gives the South Asian parents in Canada food for thought. These parents choose to immigrate to Canada. In Canada their kids have to navigate between two different worlds. Sometimes these worlds contradict and conflict without parents and kids’ knowing how exactly to behave. It also gives parallels to Shafia sisters whose trial and murder and shocked not only Canadians but people around the world.

Nevertheless, Suzanne Lively, the producer of the film explains “Snow’s portrayal of grief and transformation struck a chord with my own history and although people’s stories are different, the emotions we feel are not; I wanted to be part of a film that allowed the audience to experience the unity in the human condition.”

The audiences of Snow can relate to the film from many different angles whether it’s an immigrant story, or one of loss and grief, or dislocation.

With $350,00 budget and non-professional caste, Rohan Fernando, Writer, Director, Producer has created a film that’s theatrical release is on Feb 24^th only at the Cumberland Cinemas and continuing across the country after that.

 

Generation Next interviewed Kalista Zackhariyas, lead actor of Snow and Rohan:

Would you call the story of Snow a typical immigrant story with typical immigrant problems?

Rohan: I think it’s typical in the sense that the emotional journey she takes to better circumstances is exaggerated by extreme loss that she goes through. So in a way, I was working towards an iconic journey, exaggerated by extreme emotional loss.

While filming did you sense the need for Canadian audiences to understand the implications of natural disasters like tsunamis?

Rohan: In some ways the focus was about the loss of identity that the many immigrants go through. The tsunami as a natural disaster was a way of going about that in a non-political way because the loss is from a natural disaster rather than warfare or other reasons.

In Canada where multiculturalism is a national policy do you feel there was a need to discuss loss of identity?

Rohan: I guess it depends on where you’re living. Like in Toronto with its large Sri Lankan community, there might be less of a loss of identity; you grow up entrenched in your culture to some extent. But this character comes to a place like Nova Scotia where they come face to face with an outside culture that they have to kind of make sense of.

Kalista: I’m an immigrant to Canada and I came when I was around 10 ears old and even though I didn’t come after a loss or natural disaster, and even though I came to Toronto where we have a large South Asian population, I still felt the difference. There is a lot of coping and getting used to because Sri Lankan community here is very different from the way it is back home.

You wanted to focus on the emotional journey, but the moment you mention Sri Lanka, doesn’t it become political?

Rohan: I think that’s one of the things I try to combat; you have an imposed political identity just because you come from a country where majority of the political news is about the Civil War. When I go back to visit Sri Lanka, yes there is over-arching tragedy that the civil war implicates, but at the same time it’s a country like anywhere else where people live day to day lives and have the same kind of human journey that you have anywhere. So I wanted to focus on the human aspect of character.

Was the setting of Nova Scotia chosen deliberately?

Rohan: I actually wanted to set the story in a place where the character is forced to encounter the outside culture.

Do you think that is trauma in itself- personal decision making?

Rohan: Absolutely. It was interesting that when I took it to broadcasters, one of the comments that people kept saying was why doesn’t she stand up for herself? She’s so passive. They were talking about it in terms of a weak character; the reality is that many women from that culture tend to be passive because a lot of decisions are made for them. I feel her journey is one where she starts to take more control of her identity and starts to make more decisions and stronger decisions that you wouldn’t expect of someone from that culture.

Kalista, how did you play this passive character? Did you relate t oit?

Kalista: I was raised very traditionally Sri Lankan. My parents for a long time decided what was going to happen, with whom, and how in my life. And I rebelled against that, because I did come to Canada when I was very young. In that sense I faced the struggle between being raised very traditionally and figuring out my own identity. In terms of being passive, I’m quite a contrast from this character and there was a struggle in achieving that but I was able to bring some of my experiences to it by my own upbringing.

Was it difficult to work with non-professional artist actors?

Kalista: I wouldn’t say it was difficult. I don’t know how Rohan did it but he managed to pull off a non professional cast that brought a tremendous amount of professionalism and dedication to the film.

Rohan: They were also picked because they had similar life experiences to the characters they portrayed so it really a question of letting them be honest and be themselves.

How did you recruit these artists?

Rohan: I knew a lot of them, many of them growing up.

How long did it take to film?

Rohan: We shot for 18 days.

What was the budget you were working with?

Rohan: $350 000.

Were you surprised to hear there would be a theatrical release of the movie?

Rohan: We’ve been working hard towards it so it wasn’t a surprise but it was welcomed. And I have to give a lot of credit to Telefilm and Kenosmith, for the theatrical release.

What are your expectations of community reactions to the movie?

Rohan: I would love for it to create discussion. I think there are some controversial things in the film and they are worth discussing in terms of the way we view our identities as Sri Lankans or South Asians in Canada. It’s worth considering the options that are open to immigrants to Canada

Do you think there are parallels between the story and Shafia trials?

Rohan: Of course you’re dealing with a culture that is highly restrictive of their daughters and it ended in tragic circumstances. And it’s a difficult struggle for the parents because they have to let go of what they feel their culture is and what is best for their kids..

http://www.sagennext.com/2012/02/23/snow-journey-of-transformation-from-passivity-to-taking-charge/

 

Art & Culture Maven Review

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Toronto Indie Film Screening: Rohan Fernando’s Snow – February 24

Toronto Indie Film Screening: Snow
Written & directed by Rohan Fernando
Screening in Toronto on February 24, 2012

Snow is a beautifully shot movie that takes a nuanced look at the experiences of a new Canadian immigrant through the eyes of Parvati, a young Sri Lankan woman who loses both her family and her home in the Boxing Day tsumani of 2004.

She arrives in Canada to live with her aunt and uncle, left to navigate her way through the newly strange – and strangely cold – landscape of Southern Ontario suburbia. Parvati takes a dismal job cleaning rooms in a hotel and dutifully meets the nice young man her relatives are eager to marry her off to. It’s the connections she makes on her own, however, with a troubled tenant of the hotel and a homeless woman, who lead her out of the traditional enclave of her aunt and uncle’s home and on the road to Nova Scotia.

The characters and their relationships are nicely complicated and have a realistic feel that goes along with documentary-style camera work. It’s artfully shot, however, to appear so nonchalant, using close ups and an artistic sense of composition to add drama to the scenes set in suburban domesticity and generic chain hotel décor.

Solid acting all around fleshes out a well written script, anchored by Kalista Zackhariyas in the role of Parvati – or Kala, as she comes to call herself after the sister who slipped from her hands into the churning waters of the tsunami. The dialogue is often sparse, the story resting on her expressive eyes and whole demeanour. She physically embodies the role in a way that’s entirely convincing.

This is a story about loss, Parvati’s move halfway across the world mirroring the displacement of her whole foundation in life. In a way that feels real and offers no pat answers, Parvati’s story ends with the notion that where there is still breath, there can still be hope at the end of the tunnel.

All images by Holly Crooks

Snow
Parvati / Kala – KALISTA ZACKHARIYAS
Emily – RIA MAE
Ganesh – MOHAN FERNANDO
Lakshmi – ACHALA HEWAARACHCHI
Jennifer – HIMALY FERNANDO
Uthayan – PARDIS PARKER
Man in Room – SOBAZ BENJAMIN
Maria – ALICIA ORR MACDONALD
Written & Directed by  ROHAN FERNANDO
Produced by ROHAN FERNANDO & SUZANNE LIVELY
Executive Producer – Ann Bernier
Director of Photography – TAREK ABOUAMIN
Production Designer – ALAN MACLEOD

• Check the Cineplex Odeon website for times

http://www.artandculturemaven.com/2012/02/toronto-indie-film-screening-rohan.html

The Making of Snow, MyBindi Article

Film

 

The Making of Snow: Rohan Fernando brings a documentary eye to an intimate feature drama

• Posted
• on February 13, 2012
• in Film
• | 1 comment

After the Asian tsunami sweeps away her family, Parvati finds herself in Canada, trying to navigate a new life while living in an unfamiliar culture, with distant relatives she had never met before. Directed by Rohan Fernando, Snow, starring Kalista Zackhariyas, makes its exclusive theatrical premiere Feb. 24th in Toronto.

• 
• 
• 

Over the last decade, Rohan Fernando has earned plenty of praise and awards for his documentary films. So it’s no surprise that the writer-director brings a documentary sensibility to Snow, his first feature drama. Shot entirely in Nova Scotia (though you’d never know it watching the opening sequence, set in Sri Lanka), Snow tells the story of Parvati, a 24-year old woman who has lost her entire family to the 2004 tsunami. Relocated and dislocated, she now lives in Halifax with relatives she had never met before.

Lead Kalista Zackhariyas, who plays Parvati, has a background in a variety of performing arts, but the rest of the cast are new to the screen. “For this film, I really wanted to work primarily with non-actors,” Fernando says. “It’s a very diverse cast. We were committed to making a local film with local actors and a local crew. They’re not used to the camera and don’t have a bunch of approaches to their craft already. It created a very open collaboration.”

Fernando cast most of the main characters in the film based on the life experiences of those playing them. So Parvati’s uncle is played by a Sri Lankan immigrant, and the actor filling the role of his somewhat rebellious second-generation daughter is “basically playing exactly who she is in real life,” says Fernando. Meanwhile, Emily, a homeless musician, is played by Halifax singer-songwriter Ria Mae who is breaking out this year with her debut album “Under Your Skin”.

Snow wasn’t shot like a typical dramatic feature film either. The cast was encouraged to adapt their characters to fit their own particular experiences and individual traits. And instead of storyboarding, Fernando chose to let the scenes flow naturally, filming each one from beginning to end – following and recording the action in the style of the great cinéma vérité documentaries of the 1960s and 70s.

It’s an approach that Fernando has used with great success in his documentaries, particularly the autobiographical Cecil’s Journey (selected as best short film at the Atlantic Film Festival and nominated for a Gemini Award for best documentary) and Blood and Water. It was after shooting Blood and Water – a documentary in which he goes to Sri Lanka with his uncle, who lost both his wife and daughter to the tsunami – that Fernando started to think about going back to the subject. This time, though, he knew the film couldn’t be another documentary.

“There are ethical implications to showing scenes of profound intimacy in a documentary, because you’re seeing it through your eyes and imposing your point of view on someone else’s emotions,” he says. “I felt that a drama would be a more appropriate way of exploring those emotions and questions,” Fernando says. “I wanted to avoid shoving a camera in someone’s face when they were crying. “I needed to explore it further, which meant I had to go into it as a drama. That allowed me to delve into the deepest part of this character’s psyche and emotional landscape without those concerns.”

Parvati, the lead character in Snow, has faced tremendous loss and grief. While her suffering may be on a scale beyond what most will ever feel, the sense of dislocation Parvati feels is one most immigrants experience. “My interest in this theme comes from my own history as an immigrant,” says Fernando, who was born in Sri Lanka and grew up in what he remembers as an all-white suburban area. “This quality of transformation is at the heart of all immigrant experiences. Underlying this transformation is an immense grief associated from a sense of loss—whether loss of family, of home, of country, of culture, of innocence. It cuts to the core of the human experience.”

In Snow, we meet Parvati the day of the tsunami. So for most of the film her memories are still raw and she hasn’t really found her Canadian self. Fernando says, “I’m interested in filming characters before they coalesce into firm shapes, objects or identities. Parvati oscillates between her own name and her twin sister’s—unsure herself of which one actually survived the tsunami. In this way, Parvati is like a newborn when she wakes up in Canada, groping and stumbling, hoping to one day find herself.” And that takes us back to the idea of shooting the film like a documentary – because, Fernando says, “the process of improvisation and filming in a documentary style captures this quality of constant transformation.”

Snow had its World Premiere at the prestigious Cinequest Film Festival, opened ReelWorld and won Best Music at the Atlantic Film Festival.

SNOW opens at Cumberland Four Cinemas in Toronto for an exclusive engagement on February 24th, 2012.  Click HERE for more details.

Click HERE for more information about the film.

***CONTEST :: WIN TICKETS TO SEE SNOW SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 26!!***

To enter your name for a chance to WIN 2 FREE tickets to see Snow Sunday, Feb. 26th, all you need to do is:

1) Like SNOW’s Facebook page
2) Follow @Snowthefilm on twitter
3) Tweet the following: Go see @Snowthefilm playing at Cumberland Four Theatres Feb 24th to March 1st #mybindi#Snow

The winners will be picked randomly and posted on Facebook and Twitter on the evening of February 25th.

http://www.mybindi.com/articles/the-making-of-snow-rohan-fernando-brings-a-documentary-eye-to-an-intimate-feature-drama

Snow plays at Canada Square Theatres March 2 to March 8, 2012

Famous Players Canada Square Cinemas

http://www.cineplex.com/Theatres/TheatreDetails/Famous-Players-Canada-Square-Cinemas.aspx

Location:
2190 Yonge Street
Toronto
ON, M4S 2C6
(416) 646-0444

Nearest intersection:
Canada Square is located on the southwest corner of Eglinton Avenue and Yonge Street.

Parking:
Entrance to Parking structure is located on Berwick Avenue, two lights south of Eglinton on Yonge St. Paid lot, no discount available for theatre guests.

@Snowthefilm opened in #Toronto last night; latest interview w Director and Lead http://ow.ly/9i03n See it 17 minutes in.

Only a few more hours to win tickets to

Only a few more hours to win tickets to @snowthefilm in #Toronto this week from the #MyBindi Contest! See details here: http://ow.ly/9hZXc

@ARTFIFA @SceneCreek Spread the word about @Snowthefilm released in Toronto last night! Win tickets to the show here: http://ow.ly/9hOHq

@angryasianman Help us spread the word about @Snowthefilm ! Find out how to win tickets to the show on our facebook page http://ow.ly/9hOEu