The Invisible Hunter And Jojo Rabbit
(Disclaimer: Spoilers ahead for the movie! Stop here if you don’t want me to ruin it for you!)
One morning after attending my French classes, I decided to go watch ‘Jojo Rabbit’. It wasn’t the kind of movie I would go for normally but I had heard great reviews and asked my friend if she wanted to come along. We took a ride in an auto till the cinema and bought our tickets. We were still quite early so we sat on the sofas and chatted about our lives. Before going in the theatre, I bought myself a box of Nachos. (Why don’t people have Nachos for breakfast? But more on that some other time.) Little did I know at that time that it would be the last movie I see in a cinema hall for a very long time. The virus had already begun spreading but it wasn’t yet in our country.
We spend the next hour and a half being immersed in another world. The world where small kids are told lies about Jews. They are made to hate others on false information. The scene opens with a small boy practicing ‘Heil Hitler’ to his full capacity. While his mother, on the other hand, we realise is a spy. She saves a Jew and keeps her sheltered in a small place behind a wall. She stops eating to feed her. She gives her things she needs to survive. ‘What would it be like to stay in a small place?’ I wondered. What would it be like to never see the outside the house? I thought, if I have all the things I require, how hard could it be? At least that will keep me safe and alive. The movie ended leaving me with feelings of despair at the mom dying and the boy and the young girl dancing on the streets as the war was won. They boy didn’t want to be alone after losing his mother so he kept telling the young girl false information to stay. He finally realised the freedom is what she needs and ultimately gives it to her. The story is not only about the war. It is also about the way we are brought up, the way we look at things, the information that is given to us, and what we make of it.
After the movie ended, my friend and I found our way back home. We attended a few more classes and then the world as I know it came crumbling around me. With malls and theatres shutting down. With panic striking in every area of the country. A few weeks after we saw the movie, the entire nation was on a lockdown. All because of an invisible hunter looking for its next victim. Where the virus becomes the Nazis and we humans become the Jews hiding and taking in shelter wherever we feel safe. Not everyone is that lucky though.
We are safe and sheltered, however, we are not immune to the false and exaggerated information. We look at each other with wary eyes. We crave normalcy but yet fear it. With number of cases rising, isolating ourselves was the only solution. But for how long? And for the first time in my life it made me realise the difference between surviving and living.
The tricks that the isolation plays on our mind is far beyond science. Why is it that when we are safe and sound, we crave for the little things that will make us the next victim? Did we treat our little freedoms as luxury that we can no longer afford? Does being human mean more just being healthy and alive? I didn’t understand it completely when I saw the movie. I empathised with the little girl crammed into a tiny door in the wall. But wasn’t she safe? Wasn’t she alive? Wasn’t it enough? In some way, this lockdown and being safe is enough but that’s survival. What about living? How long can we live within 4 walls until it damages the very essence of the social fabric?
I have been blessed to have everything I need to survive but I don’t have everything to live. I now realise how many things I took for granted which may seem like a privilege to a lot and usual to others. I miss finding an auto and taking me to some place. I miss going to a cafe and ordering a coffee while I read my next book. I miss sitting on a messy table with my messy notebooks lying around trying to perfect my next story. I miss taking a walk after I have had a meal. I miss meeting people. I miss having conversations in person rather than through a computer screen. I miss going to my classes. I miss going out to dance. I miss looking at people without being scared. I miss the fresh air. I miss going to bookshops to find yet another book which will lie in my bookshelf for years before I pick it up. I miss ordering food online. I miss ordering for clothes online. And just like the little girl in Jojo Rabbit, when all of this is over, I will just want to dance and rejoice.
I have been holed up for way too long. Some more than others and some less than others. But the rise of pandemic may give rise to another of mental health. Will we be able to call ourselves social beings after being isolated for this long? Will I be able to step out and do my little dance to signify my freedom from the invisible hunter? Will I be the same person after being isolated for this long? I already feel myself changing, fearing, hoping, and fearing again. Will I be that person who gets scared if someone sits too close to me in a cafe? No one prepared me for this change.
No one is ever prepared for wars and pandemics, but every one hopes that one day it is all over. Will we able to save the mental wellbeing of everyone before the invisible hunter takes it all away? Will we be able to dance together and sway to no music without being scared of the disease? No amount of literature or movies can prepare us for a situation like this. We have seen it in movies, read it in books, experienced it in dreams, but eventually feels a lot different than reality. And while I write this behind locked doors craving for more isolation, I want to open myself to new possibilities and experiences that lie in the real world than in the virtual world.
