Turning Real Migrant Horror into a Desert Saga: In Conversation with Blessy, Director of ‘The Goat Life’

The Goat Life poster

This month of February 2025 has seen American President Donald Trump deport hundreds of illegal immigrants and send them back to India. In the recent past we have seen serious filmmakers turn their sympathetic gaze on immigrants from Punjab and Bihar, Kerala and Kashmir, Dhaka and Syria and Russia and Spain. In 2023 itself we have witnessed The Old Oak (UK) by Ken Loach, Dunki (India) by Rajkumar Hirani, Footprints on Water (UK) by Nathalie Syam – and even earlier, in 2016 we saw Oggatonama (Bangladesh) by Tauquir Ahmed.

The Goat Life (2024), however, treats the theme of a migrant worker differently – for Najeeb, the protagonist goes to Saudi Arabia on a valid passport and with a visa issued by an employer, a Sheikh owning vast tracts of land in the middle of the desert. Only, he is abducted as soon as he arrives in that country and his passport is appropriated, by another, unethical employer. Consequently for two years he is forced to live the life of a slave – until the fight for survival finds him flee the ranch…

In November 2024, among the three films competing for the Golden Peacock at the 55^th IFFI in Goa was Aadujeevitham/ The Goat Life, Kerala’s highest grosser of the year.

Earlier that year, director Blessy Thomas and Benyamin, author of the novel based on the heart wrenching experience of a Malayali worker, were feted at the Kerala Literature festival. Blessy was captivated by the story published in 2008 and within a year he had scripted it. But by the time it was ready to roll the calendar was showing 2018. Covid struck before the actual photography could be completed and the entire team had to cool their heels until they were repatriated by the Indian government under the Vande Bharat Mission.

That wasn’t the end of their trials. Critics in Saudi Arabia accused the film of damaging the country’s image and called for its boycott when Netflix screened it. In fact the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries — other than UAE — banned it though subsequently it was lifted everywhere excepting Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

In India, on the other hand, critics like Arjun Menon hailed it as “a new direction in Malayalam cinema where ambition meets resources and the right people, in favour of stories that need to be told on the biggest stage of all…” (Rediff.com). And why not? Prithviraj Sukumaran — actor, producer, playback singer, has come up with a soul stirring performance in Blessy’s visual poetry. It is not surprising that the big screen survival drama – with pulsating music by A R Rahman, breathless editing by Sreekar Prasad, outstanding sound design by Resul Pookutty, and spectacular photography by Sunil K S — was an applauded entry at the Golden Reel awards. It even reached the semi-finals for the 97^th Academy Awards to be held on March 2.

So, when we met in Goa, I popped a few questions to the ten-film-old director who has in his coffers one National Award, three Filmfare awards and nine Kerala state awards.

Blessy (Pic: Wikipedia)

Ratnottama: Essentially The Goat Life focuses on the plight of migrant workers. Internationally this theme has been causing great concern in recent times. What made you think of this theme?

Blessy: The Goat Life is based on a much read and much lauded Malayalam novel, Adijeevitham. Prithviraj Sukumaran got the rights to film the story, and he plays the central character of the victim, Najeeb.

Not only in Kerala but in all of South India, as also in Pakistan or Philippines or Bangladesh – so many people from so many countries go to seek a better life, in Dubai or Kuwait or Saudi Arabia. This is particularly true of Kerala: people with limited education, mostly labourers, try to get a job. It started in the 1960s and soared in the 1970s. So many of them became B-i-g! All these people are not immigrants who leave lock stock and barrel to live in a foreign country. These migrants leave their families behind in their place of residence and cross the international borders to earn a livelihood.

Ratnottama: They are migrant labour…

Blessy: Yes, they are migrants. Nowadays they are legal but in the 1970s some of them followed a sponsorship system called Kafala. This system prevalent in Arab countries involved an agreement between the boss and the employee. It bound the migrant worker to a specific employer for the duration of their stay in that country. Nowadays CEOs arrive at such sponsorship frameworks with employees. It defines their relationship with the kafeel or local sponsor. It is quite a common phenomenon prevailing in the Middle East as they require cost effective labour.

The system saw reforms in 2021. Still, the lack of adequate regulations and protection for the migrant workers leads to low wages, substandard working conditions, and instances of maltreatment by employers. Saudi Arabia heavily relies on migrant labour. According to a European Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (ECDHR) report, over 6.3 million migrants comprise more than 80 percent of the workforce in the private sector. Due to this dependence, migrant workers face challenges such as passport confiscation, long working hours, denial of food and delayed wages. These are the conditions of forced labour.

Ratnottama: So the gap between the dream that is sold to them and the reality they find themselves in — that continues!

Blessy: Literature and cinema don’t talk much about the sordid aspect of migration. They stick to portraying the good things only. Adejeevitham was a bestseller – it sold almost 50 editions — so people are familiar with the story of Najeeb. Unfortunately people nowadays don’t go to literature for the raw material of films. Few filmmakers today want to tap literary treasures. Unlike the 1970s and 1980s when most popular books were converted to films.

Ratnottama: In particular Bengali maestros drew their subject from literature. Likewise the Malayalam filmmakers like Adoor Gopalakrishnan…

Blessy: For films we need a visual treat. Mostly literature does not provide that as writers delve into the mind of the characters. This novel Adejeevitham offered a lot of visual treat and my first thought was, ‘This will make a good film!’

Ratnottama: Worldwide there’s a lot of forced migration happening due to environmental changes, or because of war. India saw a lot of migration following the Partition – that historical migration forced many to become ‘foreigners’ within their own country. A lot of people migrated from Syria to UK. Germany has seen waves of political asylum seekers…

Blessy: Yes, we have seen a lot of migration, due to different reasons. All migrations are disasters. Every migration forces our personality to change. Language is the first hurdle – most migrants are struggling with the language. Often we cannot express ourselves to anyone. Some are forced to live like slaves. Far away from homeland they have no succor. Imagine someone from water-abounding Kerala, having to live in a desert. Many a times they do not have even any means of communication.

Ratnottama: Yes, economics is often the main reason for migration. We’ve had large-scale migration following ecological disasters, or due to conflicts and strife. India has seen the Kashmiris moving out of their home state. But we have also seen ‘Gulf Economy’ becoming a reality. And that happened because people went to work and sent money back home.

Blessy: Nowadays that employment profile has totally changed. Our Government itself is working with so many NGOs. People are more aware about how to get a proper visa, they do not opt for fake passports. More than that, now we have communication. In the desert itself we can get a mobile phone and the labour class also knows how to handle these things. That is a major development.

Now, normally speaking, no one can blame others. Media picks up stories. In 1970s and 1980s that lack of communication was a major problem.

Ratnottama:  Goat Life is happening in…

Blessy: … 1990s. Before the Kuwait war.

Ratnottama: That is, before mobile phones came into being.

Now tell me, did you face any censorship problem? In India we invite people to shoot but when the content is not ‘favourable’ or if it ‘shows India in a bad light’ we don’t allow the film to be shot in India. This happened with Deepa Mehta’s Water. Did you face any problem because your film shows exploitation in another country?

Blessy: Not really. Because I do not portray any ill-doing by a nation. It is an individual who is exploiting a migrant labour. There are good Arabs and there are bad Arabs. That is the reality everywhere in the world.

But some countries do impose censorship fearing it will project them in a poor light. However, 119 countries watch when a film plays on the Netflix – and from everywhere we have got very positive response.

Prithviraj Sukumaran as Najeeb Muhammed

Ratnottama: Did you face any technical problem in shooting the sandstorm in the desert? Or did you create the storm digitally?

Blessy: We shot only a small portion of the sandstorm. Then it was digitally mastered to give the impression of the immensity. But we did shoot in real.

Ratnottama: Way back in 1988 my father directed Trishagni which won him the Golden Lotus for Best Debut. To shoot the climax of the film, which is set in a Central Asian desert 2500 years ago, he went to Sam desert in Rajasthan. But the team faced immense difficulty in creating the sandstorm with blowers and fans.

Blessy: Yes, it is very difficult to shoot in the desert and not just the sandstorm. It is difficult because the sand is shifting and blowing all the time. And the sun is so strong! With an entire team working, how many hours can you effectively can?

Ratnottama: So what was your budget?

Blessy: We started at the dollar rate of Rs 62 and now (in November 2024) it is Rs 86. That has bloated our budget. Also, we were stuck in the middle of the desert for 72 days – we were quarantined because of the COVID.

Ratnottama: Oh!

Blessy: We were in Jordan at that time and that hiked the budget.

Ratnottama: So when you finished what was your total spend? In mere production cost and not taking into account your marketing cost?

Blessy: Let me just say, my budget doubled.

Ratnottama: Did Netflix sponsor the making or did they buy it for streaming?

Blessy: Goat Life is not produced by Netflix, it is privately produced. They bought only the streaming rights.

Ratnottama: But once it is on a platform like Netflix can a film compete in international film festivals? What are the rules governing such screenings?

Blessy: Well, most festivals want to premiere virgin films.They want to show only what has not been seen elsewhere. But for the Oscar, you can compete only if the film has been theatrically released, and released in USA.

Sainu and Najeeb in their moment of togetherness

Ratnottama: How did you plan its marketing? What was your strategy? Did you think of releasing in India first? Or first cover the international festivals? Or premiere on Netflix?

Blessy: We released it in March 2024 and it was very successful all over India and abroad. In the UK, USA, Canada – everywhere. Mostly the Indian community came to watch it. After Netflix started streaming it, Goat Life got wide publicity.

Ratnottama: Netflix took the film to a broader audience…

Blessy: And we could plan to take it to the preliminary rounds of the Oscars. Goat Life was not India’s entry for the Foreign Language Film category. We had submitted it in the General category. To enable this we conducted shows in Los Angeles and in New York and Houston. Everywhere it fared well.

Ratnottama: Not surprising, given the fact that your subject is international and your making is of international standard too. Are you upset it didn’t make it to the Oscars?

Blessy: In any competition, one can only compete. Whether one wins or not can never be guaranteed…

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