Cassiah Joski-Jethi is an award-winning female filmmaker based in the UK, and she has just directed an exciting indie horror short called Catch a Butcher कच्चा बच्चे – and I was lucky enough to be able to interview her about her new film.
First, here’s the teaser trailer:
Can you tell me a little bit about the film, its story?
‘Catch A Butcher’ is about a new nurse’s first night at a maternity hospital in India, and on this mysterious night, most of the babies (who are of dual heritage, white and Indian) have disappeared. As the nurse goes on a journey to discover what is happening to the missing children, she finds out a sinister secret of the hospital – that they have a horrifying right-of-passage to prepare the babies to be sent away to England to be raised. The film happens in real-time and is driven by the central character’s experience, and within the short screen time, it takes the audience on quite a rollercoaster! There are some very exciting twists and turns, but I don’t want to give any spoilers!
What inspired you to tell this particular story?
I was inspired to tell a story influenced by Anglo-Indian history, as I myself have dual heritage, both white and Indian. I discovered a lot of devastating events which occurred during the 19th century, particularly surrounding Indian mothers who gave birth to mixed race children from white British men, and who had no rights about what happened to their children – often the babies were sent back to England to be raised by the father’s family and raised Anglican, never seeing or knowing of their natural mothers. I thought about the horror of stripping someone of their heritage, their birthright – how one ‘side’ of yourself can be valued more over the other – and used this as the main inspiration for ‘Catch A Butcher’.
In some ways, the premise of the film reminds me a bit of Aislinn Clarke’s recent ‘The Devil’s Doorway’ (2019), a horror film set in an Irish home for “fallen women” in 1960 – and which explores what happened to both the mothers and the children who were sent to these kinds of homes. In general, I guess I’m interested in hearing what films influenced you, especially films within the horror tradition.
There’s been an exciting rebirth of horror recently, and also how horror can mean many different things to different people. Some recent films that have inspired me are ‘The Babadook’ (Jennifer Kent), ‘Suspiria’ (the remake by Luca Guadagnino), and ‘Under The Shadow’ (Babak Anvari), but then I also have a love for classic horror films such as ‘The Shining’ (Stanley Kubrick). My style is visually driven with little dialogue, and these are all examples of horror with, in terms of plot, a fairly simple stories but told with iconic visual moments, which I hope ‘Catch A Butcher’ can emulate. Another modern horror that was a game changer was ‘Get Out’ (Jordan Peele) – it had such a huge success whilst having a point of view that traditionally had not been allowed to be expressed in horror, and I think this sort of success has helped me feel empowered to share the story of ‘Catch A Butcher’; now having it affirmed that there are huge audiences craving these unique stories, stories that haven’t been told before.
Why did you feel that a horror film was the best way to tell your story?
I think horror is a great vehicle to take audiences on a journey because it firstly takes them on a present physical experience – a thrilling, entertaining ride – but then secondly, there is reflective space for the experience and images to settle into their subconscious, letting the audience question and analyse what they have just seen. I think horror allows you to say so much without an audience feeling like a political or social agenda is being pushed into the foreground, and for ‘Catch A Butcher’, since the history it is inspired by is not very well-known history (at least not in the UK), my hope is that the audiences will have a gripping visual ride and then after, have the time to think, consider and even educate themselves on the history, themes and symbols explored throughout the film.
What were some of the challenges you encountered in creating and filming ‘Catch a Butcher’?
There were many challenges, especially considering the scale and ambition of the film on a limited budget. Practically, we had an intensely challenging shoot due to the location itself – it was extremely remote, there was lack of signal/WiFi, and it was very, very cold! But, I think these challenges added a real gritty energy to the film which you can sense as you watch it, and the location itself was just so perfect for the film, such an incredible atmosphere. For me, the challenge is always personal because I’m ever-conscious that it is important to tell this story in the right way, but it is always a balance of getting the tone right and doing what is best for the film versus whatever circumstances or limitations you are working in or come up. On set, as always, there are things that have to be adjusted and changed, but that also carries right through to editing, and beyond. So that’s always a challenge you have to negotiate as a director – it can’t always be exactly as you have it in your head!
Cassiah was recently on BBC radio in the UK talking about her heritage and the film, if you’d like to have a listen (about 35 minutes in): https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p077rc56
You can see more info about the film here: https://www.crowdfunder.
