Closet Land
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Closet Land is a 1991 independent film directed by Radha Bharadwaj and stars Alan Rickman as a sadistic, ruthless interrogator and Madeleine Stowe as a young author of children's books accused of embedding anarchistic messages into her particular book entitled: Closet Land, a story about a child who, as a result of bad behaviour, has been locked in a closet as punishment. While in there, the child is greeted by a choir of childhood ally archetypes who innocently attempt to comfort the scared little girl. While the novel, as the viewer will later on discover, is actually a form of escapism and provides a coping-mechanism for the author who endured sexual abuse as a child, the seemingly simple content is questioned by the government of encouraging and introducing anarchism among its audience of naïve children. Whilst the interrogator is obstinate in his belief that the author is guilty of hidden propaganda, the audience is convinced of the victim's innocence.
The script was Radha Bharadwaj's winning submission to The Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting program in 1989. The Nicholl Fellowships are run by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
The film takes place in a purposely unspecified country, and is quite reminiscent of George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. The film exhibits the use of brutal and inhumane torture to coerce confessions from innocent victims. The human rights organization Amnesty International served as consultants for the film.
