Movanu Shafeeq brings raw truth to Maldivian screens

“In a very modern, digital age, I grew up without access to the internet or a Playstation, until I was in my teens,” he says. “So, I was often bored as a kid, doing old school stuff to keep me entertained.” 

Movanu was also obsessed with film and literature. English was a favourite subject, and he wrote for school plays and produced scripts for sketches and skits that he would get his siblings to act out. 

But strangely, Movanu could easily have become a computer scientist. He describes himself as a nerdy person who was also greatly drawn to technology. Yet it was his childhood interest in photography and writing that ended up changing everything for him. In the first year of A-Levels, he had “an epiphany,” and realised he could not work a desk job. He wanted to become a filmmaker. 

“I had to fight my family initially,” Movanu says. “It was a curveball, they weren’t ready for it. But eventually, they understood I really meant it and I was completely passionate and serious. So, they finally supported me in following my dream.”

Soon, Movanu was enrolled in film-school in Bournemouth, UK, where he grew increasingly infatuated with realist cinema. This comes through in the two short films he has made thus far, and, he says, in his forthcoming feature film Dhoadhi as well. Movanu’s crucial takeaway from the time in Bournemouth is the emphasis on collaboration in filmmaking. It is particularly important here in the Maldives where he senses a reluctance to work together for a common goal. 

After completing studies, Movanu chose to return home, not only for emotional reasons. From a purely pragmatic view, he knew he would have opportunities in the Maldives that he would not get for several years in places with more mature film communities. Writing and directing one’s own feature in one’s early twenties would be highly unlikely elsewhere. And for a young man wanting to make a mark on the world, coming home was the logical option.

This short film (now on YouTube) features two young boys, best friends, in their island home. One of them is to depart for Malé for studies, so the film is fraught with the tension of impending separation. It touches on Movanu’s own departure from his home, leaving behind his childhood friends in Malé. 

“It was very well received,” says Movanu. “Even by older generations, they were able to relate to it.”

Movanu wrote Falhu during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, feeling a sense of loss and homesickness which he was able to translate remarkably well to the film. The realism that he admires is also evident. There are things that boys do and experience shown on screen that are rarely discussed in the dominant culture. 

Falhu draws on universal themes. Given these and its honest portrayal of the lives of its child protagonists, as well as compelling visuals, it shines with singular brilliance in a film-landscape where short films are given the short shrift.

While Falhu explored childhood, friendship, and separation with a touch of romanticism, Indha presents a very stark, almost brutal reality of a young woman facing a harrowing decision.

Abortion is easily among the most traumatic of experiences a teenage girl can go through in a society like ours where it must be done in private. Movanu wanted it to be as true to this feeling as possible. Visually, too, the style is darker, shot in natural light, by Movanu’s director of photography, Lauh Mohamed.  

On the film’s conception and production, Movanu explains: “Indha was produced during the development phase of my current feature, Dhoadhi. I hit a block while working on the script for that and in finding my way out of it, I imagined alternative outcomes for the feature. And I thought ‘hey, these might be great to explore in a short film again.’”

Despite some resistance, Indha’s reception was largely favourable for a film about a controversial subject, Movanu observes. Perhaps more so than Falhu, the film reveals Movanu’s personal approach and philosophy in filmmaking, one that embodies an unflinching realism. 

With Dhoadhi, Movanu wants to tell a story set in his hometown Malé, exploring the lives, loves, and friendships of young people. It’s a coming-of-age film that he hopes will draw in audiences, especially younger ones. 

As with his two short films, Movanu’s idea of a film has more in common with a documentary, one that explores socio-cultural phenomena that get little to no attention. Movanu is not advocating anything in particular. Rather, his role as a filmmaker is to shine a light on such phenomena without judgment or expectation – except that the audience pays attention. This is strikingly fresh in a cinematic landscape overly concerned with messaging and moralising. And it is what most clearly sets Movanu apart.   

To realise his vision in filmmaking and other creative collaboration, Movanu formed Shepherd, a company that offers film production, design, and marketing services. With this company, Movanu intends to do daring work and push as far as he can in a society as insular and peculiarly conservative as ours. He takes the role of the artist seriously, taking a bit of pride in playing provocateur. When works pass the test of time, they are usually those that defy the prevailing norms of a culture at the time, and which influence subsequent works. It will be interesting to see the effects of Movanu’s filmmaking as much as the films themselves, especially in the wake of his first feature – what it goes on to inspire will be its true legacy.