‘WE DON’T KNOW THE HISTORY OF OUR OWN ETHNICITIES’

WRITER-director Jayan Cherian's Rhythm of Dammam is billed as the first-ever feature film to explore the Siddi community, the descendants of Africa's Bantu people, and their Konkani dialect.

- SREEJITH MULLAPPILLY

Rhythm of Dammam, which premiered at the recently concluded IFFI festival in Goa, is one of the three Indian films featuring in the International Competition section at the ongoing 29th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK). Set in Yellapur, Karnataka, it revolves around Jayaram Siddi (Chinmaya Siddi), a teenager who grapples with haunting memories of his late grandfather (Parashuram Siddi). Jayaram's family believes that the old man's spirit continues to haunt him, but it is a metaphor for intergenerational trauma. Speaking about the origins of the film, Jayan Cherian says, "It is part of my long-time research about the subject of the African diaspora in Asia. I reached out to the community in 2016 and interacted with them for a long time. Then, I stayed permanently in their villages from 2018, which eventually led me to this film." He goes on to add, "I always had an interest in the trans-Indian Ocean slave trade. It is not as well documented as the trans-Atlantic slave trade."

The Malayali filmmaker regards Rhythm of Dammam as an extension of his 2013 film Papilio Buddha, which talks about caste oppression, and his 2016 film