Behind the Fire in Babylon - An interview with Stevan Riley

We are a country that is known to be mad over films and crazy about cricket. No wonder Lagaan was such a big hit with us. But more than a decade later, Stevan Riley's Fire in Babylon – a documentary on the West Indies' Cricket team of the seventies is causing a ripple among the audience. The first question on everyone's minds – why the name Babylon? 

To that, Riley says, “Babylon is a Rastafarian term. It was the lifestyle - a sort of a religion that Bob Marley followed. Babylon, to them, is a place that symbolizes prejudice and oppression. The fire, hence, is a representation of the quest for the right and the fight against the wrong.” This makes the film more than just a cricket film, or a sports documentary. This is what makes it a great story of the triumph of the under dog.

Riley, having grown up in England in the 1980s, was captivated by the West Indies' performance in the 1984 'Blackwash' series. It was a time of tremendous racial prejudice in Britain and what that team did made a statement that they are equal on all levels. “That is what inspired me to agree to make this film. If it was any other team, I might have not made it. Because although this was a film about a cricket team, it goes beyond the sport.” he says. 

After compiling the interviews and the stock footage within a year, the film was added the extra dimension with the music. Riley adds, “It was the Caribbean. I was spoilt for choice with music. Bob Marley was necessary and the rich folk tradition in these islands also provided a lot of material. It adds a Calypso flavour to the film.” The local folk artists singing songs in praise of the game and in the glory of the legends of their favourite game give the film a rhythm.

Fire in Babylon is one of the very few nonfictional films to be released theatrically in India but Riley is confident of its success. “It's a great story of an underdog's victory. It is about a cricket team from a colonial country that rises against the oppression of its colonizer. I think the Indian audience will relate to this. Atleast I hope they do.” he says. But the fact that Indian audience is relatively new to the genre of documentaries, being an advocate of non-fictional story telling, is a cause of concern for Riley. 

He urges the Indian audience to change their perspective and says, “It's a shame really if Indians are not that much into documentaries. There is so much rich life to catalogue here. The perception that documentaries are just a factual record needs to change. It's a form of story telling and people need to see it that way.” He also comments that it is a vicious circle and adds, “It is a financial thing. If a documentary is a hit, the distributors start to trust the makers, and once the platform is available, the audience gets created.”

Riley was in India for a week and had plans to spend some time in Himalayas before going back for the premiere of his upcoming documentary Everything or Nothing: The Untold Story of 007 which releases in the UK in the first week of October.

Unedited Version

Published in DNA After Hrs (Pune) on September 25, 2012

ApoCalypso

“Aggression means aggression. That’s just how I look at life. If you fight, I am going to fight,” says a very inspiring and awesome Sir Vivian Richards in Stevan Riley’s non-fiction film Fire in Babylon. One of the few full-length documentaries to be released theatrically in India, this film is one of the most inspiring accounts of a sports team rising from ashes and ruling the world.

Based on the phase of West Indian cricket when their fast bowlers – Michael Holding, Andy Roberts, Joel Garner, Colin Croft, and Malcolm Marshall were nothing short of names of nightmares that batsmen all across the world had, this film tells the background story of what led to the resurgence of a team that was loved for playing entertaining cricket and losing. 

After suffering from a humiliating series defeat in Australia and being mauled by the beastly fast bowlers Australia had then, the West Indian team led by Clive Lloyd embarked on a journey that not only silenced their critics and got them the results they wanted, but also forced fear in the minds of their opponents. The film browses through the period from 1975 to the late 1980s, when test cricket was dominated almost single-handedly by the West Indies.

With personal interviews with Sir Vivian Richards, Michael Holding, Colin Croft, Clive Lloyd, Andy Roberts, Gordon Greenidge and some groundsmen, along with one of the Wailer Bros, Stevan Riley provides kind of a firsthand account of the era. Compiled in a way that captures the Caribbean essence, with amalgamated footage from the live games, Fire in Babylon brings you close to the action. It is evident that the focus is on the fast bowlers that shook the world and broke some skulls. As an Indian, it hurts the ego to see Sunil Gavaskar walk off the field protesting against the vicious bowling. They are the metaphor for the aggression of the oppressed, not just in the sport but in the society. The film sees these cricketers share their experiences on foreign tours where they were met with racial abuse and brutal competitiveness, whose consequence was the brutality in their game. The film also glimpses over the Kerry Packer series and the incident when some cricketers rebelled against the ban on South Africa during apartheid and were later suspended.

The content is gripping but its impact is amplified with the music that plays in the background. Some footage of Bob Marley performing Get Up Stand Up lends an added dimension to the experience. The interviews are also interspersed with folk musicians from the Caribbean singing glorious songs about their favourite game and beloved cricketers who are now Caribbean legends.

Made in 2010, the film releases in Indian theatres today. But, given how rarely we get to watch good non-fiction in theatres, Fire in Babylon is a must watch. It is a fine sports film, a good musical, great action thriller and probably a movie that will motivate you. 


Rating: 3.5 out of 5


Published in DNA After Hrs (Pune) on September 22, 2012