Body Text
Inspired by the true story of Bophana, who coped with torture at the hands of the Pol Pot henchmen by retreating into the rich imaginative and spiritual world of the Ramayana and imagining herself to be Sita.
Where do some extraordinary individuals find the reserves of strength to withstand physical pain and mental torture? I was very drawn to the idea that a self-created inner world of the aesthetic imagination could be a source of such a spiritual strength and sustenance. For Bophana, the Ramayana epic that is so knitted into her culture's aesthetic expressions is no mere adult fairy-tale, but an experience of near-religious intensity.
