Minerva’s Lilies by Amirah Tajdin
Amirah Tajdin continues to make beautiful short films. I recently shared her Baqala video and here's her latest short film, Minerva’s Lilies which was posted on Casimira a week ago.
Minerva’s Lilies was inspired by Amirah Tajdin's "idea of sisterhood, magic, femininity and heartache". The film left me feeling both happy and sad. Happy because of all the girls and women out there who are following their dreams and being true to themselves, and sad because the line "they become broken versions of who they were never meant to be" made me think of all the girls and women out there who aren't living the lives they want.
Please watch this short film and share it with your sister, your daughter, your girl friends.
Shot against a pink Dubai sunset and set to a Swahili Taarab song, Minerva’s Lilies is an intimate portrait of girlhood and the bond between sisters, mothers and daughters.
The film is a personal journey for Tajdin and reflects the various places she calls home, “A testament to the women in my life, my two sisters and most importantly to my mother. Minerva’s Lilies is a meditation on femininity that I weaved up after watching my mother deal with her daughters leaving the house and her re-assessing her sense of womanhood outside of her primary identity of motherhood after 30 years.”
Minerva’s Lilies centres on two sisters, Leah and Nayomi, aged 9 and 10, as they go through the motions of ‘being girls’, playing dress up, riding bicycles and performing make believe rituals. The visual meditation forms the experience of not only the girls’ little world of magic but that of their mother watching over them perched carefully on the edge of their reverie.
www.casimirtv.com/minervas-lilies-personal-portrait-sisterhood-magic-mothers