The Story & Inspiration
Film Synopsis
Samsara is an art film left open to audience interpretation. The story that is about to be explained is the filmmaker's vision / intention towards making the film, but shouldn't be limited as the only meaning of the film.
Samsara is about a world very much like our own. Flowing chronologically, it begins with an egg that happens to be different than the other eggs. When this egg turns into a caterpillar and initially enters the world, the other butterflies (society) deem it to be different, as it is a caterpillar that they don't recognise. Due to these judgements set upon the butterfly from the start, it is unaccepted, attacked and hurt. Living with this trauma, bandaging itself into a cocoon, it learns to shield itself, just as humans grow to hide their trauma and pain. With natures magic, from the cocoon it turns into a beautiful human butterfly named Monarch, a name which is derived from the protagonist's look, based on the monarch butterfly species. After hard work, Monarch then goes onto creating a magical world of its own, building a sunflower empire where there was once nothing but barren land. Just as she is about to enjoy the fruits of her labour, the butterflies that hurt her in the past, return. This time though, they treat her differently, making Monarch feel welcomed into the world. The blue butterflies drag Monarch from flower to flower and unleash themselves until they cover all of her sunflowers. Monarch doesn't realise what is actually happening and is happy as she thinks she is finally accepted into the world by the community of blue butterflies. However, in all the chaos and excitement, she forgets to take care of herself and when time comes for feeding, she realises she has been used by the butterflies as there is no room left for her on her very own sunflowers. The character is left to question her reality and her perspective on the world shifts. Broken, feeling used and betrayed Monarch crumbles and the society of blue butterflies show her no mercy. As they attack Monarch, she screams and yells, dropping down onto the floor in pain. But, at the end we see yellow sunflowers and blue butterflies, with happy music, making monarch look like the one that's gone insane.
The Inspiration
The whole alignment of Samsara came to the filmmaker in a dream one night, 6 years ago, when she was 18 years old. Written & Directed by Mansha Totla, the film was inspired by the filmmaker's real life experiences at the time. She felt the importance of sharing a story that could be educational and relatable to every human being.
Emphasis- With an emphasis on the mental health issues be it bipolar disorder, anxiety issues or depression, it isn't just a film for people that have experienced the above. It is for anyone and everyone that has ever gone through any notion of emotional pain in their life. Through the story the film highlights the importance of taking care of one's mental health and the seriousness that we need to approach this topic with as a society.
Goal - The film's main goal is to highlight the importance of empathy, something the filmmaker felt is deeply lacking in our society today. Samsara implements this message by letting the audience live through the journey and mindset of someone that is experiencing difficulties in their life at a psychological level. It explores the metaphor ‘to put yourself in someone else’s shoes’, in a cinematic way. It aims for a future where we all can potentially approach others around us, as fellow human beings, with true empathy and understanding instead go being too quick to judge or label them. It is a film that wants to spread the message of love, acceptance and inclusivity.
Character design - The film's protagonist was designed as a human Monarch butterfly to further the aforementioned agenda of the film. The creator decided to not make ‘Monarch’ belonging to any specific class, caste, skin colour or religion, to alleviate elements that are known to cause discrimination and divide amongst humanity. Mansha wanted nothing to come in the way of audiences from around the world connecting with the message of the film. Hence, the actor’s body type was also not shown as one of perfect stereotypical standards of beauty, but as one that is more relatable universally.
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Title - The meaning of the word Samsara, is the cycle of birth, death and reincarnation. In Buddhism, it is believed that every living creature entering the universe experiences ‘dukkah’ i.e pain and suffering. This experience can transform their perspective on the world and themselves, changing the meaning of reality forever. To seek Samsara, is to seek our very nature of being.
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