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Period. End of Sentence.
Available on Netflix SA
4 stars
In many parts of rural India, girls see menstruation as shameful, and some boys think it’s a disease. You only have to watch the beginning of documentary short Period. End of Sentence. to see how utterly uncomfortable young people are in that country when it comes to talking about periods.
What makes the situation worse is the lack of access to pads and tampons. Like in South Africa, girls miss school because they don’t have sanitary wear or access to proper toilets where they can change their pads.
They resort to using cloth or any material they can find – an obviously uncomfortable and sometimes unhygienic option.
But this is no depressing movie. Director Rayka Zehtabchi tells the story of Arunachalam Muruganantham, a man who’s invented a low-cost sanitary napkin machine that creates biodegradable pads for a third of the cost of commercial pads.
His machines have been installed in 23 of India’s 29 states, and he was included in Time magazine’s list of 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2014.
But almost more inspirational is the women who have used the machine to manufacture and sell their own pads. One of them, Sneha, had to drop out of school because of her period, but then started earning money using the machine. She is studying to be a police officer.
An older woman had not worked before, but now has a job making pads on the machine. Yet another boasts how she brought her brother clothes when he came to visit her – brothers usually buy their sisters clothes, not the other way around.
With punchy music, beautifully shot images and a sparkle in the eye, Period. End of Sentence. tells a simple tale that illustrates even bigger issues, including gender inequality, culture, feminism, patriarchy and poverty.
It might not be the most grandiose or artistic of films listed in its Oscar category, but it sure spoke the loudest.
Short films are rarely viewed by the public because getting access to them is usually hard. The fact that Period. End of Sentence. is available on Netflix speaks volumes about its audience appeal.
Pad Man (2018)
Director: R Balki
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Radhika Apte
Available on Netflix SA
Arunachalam Muruganantham created his low-cost sanitary pad-making machine after seeing his wife resort to using dirty rags during her period because she couldn’t afford commercial pads. Not only did he solve his wife’s problem, but his machine is now empowering women all over India.
Pad Man is a dramatised version of Muruganantham’s life and his journey with the machine.
Though some critics called it heavy-handed in aggrandising Muruganantham, it has generally favourable reviews, with many praising it for being absorbing, important and highly entertaining.
