In the last decade, there has been a growing effort for better representation of South Asian people in mainstream media. The fallout of 9/11 in addition to growing anti-Islamic sentiment in Western countries was compounded, in the early 00s, by the launch of social media allowing uncensored posts and images from anyone around the world. Accused is a film critiquing this rise and its effects on everyday people, whether they are South Asian or not. What follows is a film about how 1 post can lead to an unstoppable frenzy wrecking the lives of everyone who sees it.
Accused is about a young man, Harri, who is spending a few days at his parents’ house in the idyllic English countryside dog sitting for them while they’re on holiday. Whilst Harri is on the train to their house, his phone starts buzzing, along with every other passenger in the carriage. There has been a breaking news alert that a bomb has exploded in ‘Central Junction,’ a fictional London train station. When he eventually arrives home, his parents hug him relieved to know that he is safe and invite him. It’s the first of many images that reverse the role of the South Asian family in a story triggered by a bomb attack. Usually they are perpetrators, in this film they are the lucky near-victims. It is a jarring moment and a reminder of how easily we become used to the roles people are given in mainstream media.
His parents eventually take a taxi to the airport and Harry is left alone with his dog Flynn. Whilst sitting and watching Frankenstein, he receives another news alert of a released photo of the bomb attack suspect. Not thinking anything of it, he continues watching the film until his girlfriend calls him and laughs at the uncanny resemblance between him and the bombing suspect. As a South Asian woman, I recognised this moment. I can’t count the many times we had made jokes about my brother being stopped at the airport or being chosen for random checks to make light of a much larger, serious situation. Whilst there isn’t a clear resemblance between Harri and the suspect beyond clothes, an old school friend on Twitter ends up naming and identifying him as the suspect. In that moment, I realised that the jokes we tell are only masking the very real, very present danger that South Asian people face on a daily basis just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
From this point, Boiling Point director Philip Barantani, creates the same tense narrative as his previous feature. Unlike in Boiling Point, so much of the tension is created through shots of posts on various social media platforms and we watch the slow escalation of violence unable to stop its spread across the internet. It’s not long before the violence from the screen becomes a three-dimensional threat outside Harri’s door and I can honestly say I barely breathed from that moment until the end of the film. It was only after it had ended and the tension had left my body that the other subliminal message of the film began to seep through.
In our current society, we see these messages and violent messages on social media every day but forget how one single post can lead to a person’s life being in danger. We sadly live in a society where there is a rise in anti-Semitism or anti-Asian violence and we have all seen news articles of this. This film reminds us not to look at these incidents as individual moments but to look beyond that and consider what the larger and, more dangerous, consequences of one individual’s action can be. Whilst it could have easily been a criticism of social media, it chose instead to take a more nuanced view and reminded us of the dangers of scapegoating minorities in a society whether online or in person. The person who identified Harri on Twitter had known him as a child, had known him growing up but she still easily believed that he could be the bomber showing us the petrifying effect of negative portrayals of minorities in mainstream media and how easily we can turn against one another. It’s a necessary reminder to pause, think and consider before pressing ‘enter’.
Accused is out on Netflix now
by Aleena Augustine
Aleena is currently working in podcasting, but her first love has always been TV and films. Growing up, she loved the teen shows of the 00s from One Tree Hill to Gossip Girl and then graduated to comedies like Scrubs and The Thick of It. Now, she tries to immerse herself in every kind of film and television she can find regardless of language or genre (although horror is still an exception!) She is passionate about inclusivity in the media industry, both in front of and behind the camera. In the future, she hopes that this will become the norm and everyone’s stories will be told with care and thoughtfulness. Her favourite films include Before Sunset, When Harry Met Sally, Moonlight and Zodiac.
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