Prends, Seigneur, Prends

An intense plunge into the ceremonies of the Panchwa festival, when the Kalbelia of Rajasthan converse with their dead – warriors and goddesses – through the entranced bodies of the living.

During the ceremonies of the Panchwa festival, the Kalbelia of Rajasthan converse with their dead – warriors and goddesses – through the entranced bodies of the living. The film begins and ends on the modest stage of a brick altar, first quite bare in the middle of the desert, then overladen with offerings and sacrificial blood. It recreates the immersive intensity of this ritual of flesh, blood, flames and cries – in this sense, the camera’s presence is more than welcome, as if putting a finishing touch to the spectacle: “Leave us alone” declares the priest, “except for the Whites: they are filming”… Jacob Stambach’s sound work bolsters this intensity, while in turn the ritual feeds the filming with the colours of pigments and blood. The possessed stream past the altar to impart their supplications, while a handful of mediums of all ages offer up their bodies to the Lord in a striking act of instant incarnation. The spectacular also functions as a social game: when the priest replies: “You ought to have treated me better!” to a man who asks him “Will my father be cured?”, it is impossible to decide whether it is the dignitary himself speaking or the Lord speaking through him. Suspicions of the mediums’ imposture, heard here and there, further isolate the ritual in a bubble of belief, fervent but ready to burst. (Charlotte Garson)