Representations of Femininity: International Perspectives - Liyana (Aaron and Amanda Kopp, 2017)
Liyana (Aaron and Amanda Kopp, 2017).
This blog post examines the 2017 film Liyana, directed by Aaron and Amanda Kopp, which describes itself as a “genre-defying documentary” that weaves together both animation and live-action scenes to tell the story of five orphaned children in the Kingdom of Eswatini. Yet its reflexive framing narrative focuses on the children’s creation of their own fictional tale featuring the fearless Liyana, who as part of the film’s story-within-a-story structure embarks on a treacherous quest to save her younger brothers. The film is part of a larger social project, including the LIYANA Impact Campaign and Education Fund, with its aim according to the website to “use the fictional story of a young African heroine to inspire the next generation of leaders to embrace their own strength and identities.” The project includes additional Impact Strategies such as educational materials and storytelling workshops, as well as an Education Fund for the storytellers who appeared in the movie and are now growing up (see EDUCATION FUND — LIYANA THE MOVIE). As I argue in this blog, Liyana draws on the affordances of the animated medium to inspire and empower young people – as well as others around the world – to find the strength and the tools that they need to write the very stories of their lives, themselves. The fluidity between the live action and animation sequences in the film blurs the boundaries between the two mediums, and suggests as part of this visual collusion the impact that this story will have on these children’s lives, as well as society at large. As one of the younger storytellers, Nomcebo, admits after Liyana’s story has reached its triumphant finale, “Liyana was strong; I am also strong’. While it is certainly true that, in Nomcebo’s words, it is “more difficult to live your life than telling a story,” the film leaves no doubt as a result of the animation it employs about the transformative and therapeutic power of the human imagination.
In her writing on animated identity, Jane Batkin writes that animation ‘constantly points to the “real” and the “not real” in order to construct and define itself’ (2017, 91). Such an interplay between these two realms is absolutely central to Liyana’s powerful message and its mission to employ storytelling and the imagination to enact real world change. As Fig. 1 shows, one of the most striking elements of the animated documentary is the creation of visual continuity between the real and animated worlds. Throughout the film, the children’s drawings, words, and surroundings seamlessly morph into heroine Liyana’s animated universe, effortlessly combining different types of image-making to emphasise the element of craft and creation that contributes to the building of a story.
Fig. 1 - Visual continuity between the real and animated worlds in Liyana.
This element of self-reflexivity is also present at the beginning of the film, where storytelling guide Gcina Mhlophe explains that working with fictional characters enables self-exploration, noting “you can delve into places you’ve covered and stored away.” This comment is intended to identify the terms under which many of the children’s real-life experiences will play out in this narrative. Yet Gcina’s reflections also speak to filmmaker Orly Yadin’s observations that “animation can be the most honest form of documentary filmmaking” (2005, 169). The animated medium is able to express thoughts and feelings that go beyond the limits of live-action, and as such is a form of creative communication uniquely suited to representing experiences that might be too painful to represent literally. The intercutting in the film between an animated sequence showing vultures preying on Liyana as part of the children’s story, and then live-action footage of the children visiting the doctors to be tested for HIV, demonstrates how the children can process the fear and trauma they have experienced in their lives by conceptualising it as something more tangible and computable. The deadly virus that they have watched claiming the lives of their parents becomes the vultures circling Liyana, and Liyana’s perseverance in the face of terrifying obstacles encourages the children not to give up. As she proclaims, “In your own life maybe there is no hope but sometimes you need to keep pushing.”
It is significant too that Liyana’s brave protagonist is a young girl. HIV in Eswatini disproportionately affects this demographic, who are three times more likely to contract the virus than their male counterparts (see Cowie 2015). Gender-based violence is an international problem, and Eswatini is no different: these substantial figures can be attributed to high rates of sexual violence alongside patriarchal structures that repeatedly limit women’s autonomy over their sexual health. Hleli Luhlanga of the Eswatini Young Women’s Network believes that “it goes back to the patriarchal notion of women being looked at as owned objects and property” (qtd. in Cowie 2015). Liyana fights against this ideology by presenting a fierce, independent female protagonist who all the children respect and admire, and who repeatedly refer to her as “strong,” “brave,” and “clever.” Traditional gendered notions of agency and authority are subverted as it is Liyana who must rescue her brothers: femininity is presented as power and strength; it is Liyana who is the heroine and saviour (Fig. 2). It is not an easy path, with Liyana struggling against her abusive father and later the evil robbers who confront them, but this animated story is a constructive way for younger storytellers to process the trauma that many of them have suffered while investing them with the power to create a different ending, one which breaks damaging cycles of gender-based violence.
Fig. 2 - The eponymous Liyana.
The critical acclaim that Liyana has received is testament to the power of stories and the importance of representation. Women and Hollywood lauded the film as a “new female-led African myth,” while Shadow and Act asserted that “the world desperately needs to see more stories like this.” The LIYANA store (which can be found here: LIYANA STORE — LIYANA THE MOVIE) even includes mugs, T-shirts and tote bags emblazoned with the words ‘I AM THE STORYTELLER’, casting no doubt over the film’s mission while utilising the relationship between merchandising to provide greater visibility to the film’s gender and racial politics. As stated in their broader ‘Impact Campaign’ (GET INVOLVED — LIYANA THE MOVIE), “We will use the fictional story of a young African heroine to inspire the next generation of leaders to embrace their own strength and identities.”
In line with Michael D. Jackson’s assertion that stories “are a kind of theatre where we collaborate in reinventing ourselves and authorizing notions, both individual and collective, of who we are” (1998, 16), Liyana is a new kind of animated story told by a different authoritative voice that strives to recalibrate the social fabric. It does not gloss over the pain and suffering that these young children have experienced, but it employs animation to invest these same experiences with greater degrees of authenticity and emotion. These children are the sole creators of Liyana’s story, with the power to shape the narrative here and beyond. Animation is the perfect medium for this process because, as Paul Wells writes, it is a “highly detailed process of creating a world rather than merely inhabiting one” (2002, 26). Animation is, as Liyana shows, ontologically creative – it is always necessarily created from scratch and therefore lends itself to articulating the power and fantasy of imagination. Imagination is key to social change because every change starts with a vision. In Liyana we see the children create such a vision, one of courage and hope, through storytelling.
**Article published: February 16, 2024**
Bibliography
Batkin, Jane. 2017. Identity in Animation: A Journey Into Self, Difference, Culture and the Body. London and New York: Routledge.
Cowie, Sam. 2015. “Rape and HIV a common reality for young Swazi women.” Aljazeera (April 7, 2015), available at: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/03/rape-hiv-common-reality-young-swazi-women-150331055924861.html.
Jackson, Michael D. 1998. The Politics of Storytelling: Violence, Transgression and Intersubjectivity. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum.
Wells, Paul. 2002. Animation: Genre and Authorship. London: Wallflower Press.
Yadin, Orly. 2005. “But is it documentary?” In Holocaust and the Moving Image: Representations in Film and Television Since 1933, edited by Toby Haggith and Joanna Newman, 168-172. London: Wallflower Press.