In 2011, the Khasi language film “19/87” was selected for the pre¬sti¬gious International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala. Directed by Wanphrang Diengdoh, in collabora¬tion with the filmmaker Dondor Lyngdoh and the writer Janice Pariat, the film was received by some critics as “the birth of Khasi New Wave”. Devised as part of an experi¬mental trilogy set in the city of Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya, the film tells the story of a Khasi youth, Banri, who befriends a Muslim tailor, Suleiman. Even though they are both Indian nationals and live on Indian territory, Suleiman is a dkhar, a derogatory term used by the Khasis to refer to people they consider “outsiders” to their ethnic group, “foreigners” to the tribal hills and, ultimately, “strangers” to the land. The only film of the trilogy to have been released so far, “19/87” is an important work of social history that addresses the ambivalent condition of “the stranger” in an imaginary Khasiland. During this lecture, we will look at “19/87” as an important authorial work that aims at deconstructing the artificial idea of a pure Khasiness which constantly places those who allegedly “do not belong” in an ambiguous and sometimes dangerous situation.
“19/87” (36 minutes) will be screened after the lecture and before the concluding discussion.

Dr. Matta is a researcher in South Asian Studies at the Istituto Italiano di Studi Orientali, Università di Roma „La Sapienza“, where she has been teaching “Modern Literatures of the Indian Subcontinent” for the last seven years. Her recent studies, which were part of her postdoctoral fellowship project at the Università di Napoli “L’Orientale”, focused on indigenous literatures and cinemas in the borderlands of Northeast India and Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts. She is continuing her research on literature and filmmaking as modes of retrieving a voice, fighting a visual hegemonic regime and providing alternative insights into the social and cultural history of “subaltern people” in India and Bangladesh (Adivasis, Dalits, women). Dr. Matta also works on issues of migration and diaspora, both in South Asia and Italy, and is a member of the Archive of Migrant Memories (AMM, Rome) and of NETPAC (The Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema).