Objective Point of View in Sia

                While viewing the film Sia: The Dream of the Python, it is essential to recognize the objective point of view of the camera and how it affects both the narrative and its respective audience.  Through this technique the narrative is able to portray the story of Sia, which revolves around the event of a woman being chosen to be sacrificed to the Python-god, in a detached manner.  This removed approach structures the narrative in such a way that allows the audience to have a personal response to each scene without attaching them to any one character.  In a Short Guide to Writing about Film, Timothy Corrigan explains that this technique does not confine the audience “to any one person’s perspective”, but rather allows them to experience the narrative from a more objective standpoint (49). 

            The first scene of the film reinforces this idea as it presents the audience as the spectators, not participators, in a story that is being retold.  In the opening scene the camera, almost voyeuristically so, approaches a group of cloaked men who seem to be participating in some kind of ritualistic gathering.  One man in particular begins speaking of a legend that has “the privilege of being ageless”. Not only does this scene establish that the narrative itself is literally a story (a technique that furthers detachment), but it also introduces the camera’s role as an objective lens through which the audience will view it.

            Though the title of the movie is the same as the name of the woman that is chosen to be sacrificed, the objective point of view throughout the film suggests that the conflicts that each individual faces as a result of this decision are just as, if not more, important than the struggle of Sia alone.  In fact, the majority of the film does not follow Sia, but rather follows the peripheral characters that are affected by the priests’ demand that Sia is to be the sacrifice.  For instance, Walkane, the head of the tyrant king’s army must choose between upholding the “good” of the state or the happiness of his family.  The objective point of view allows the audience to experience both his acts of evil and of good without attaching them to his personal perspective.  After illuminating an issue Walkane must face, the camera may then focus on the tyrant king, the mother and father of Sia, etc., with the same result.

            Ultimately, the camera presents a detached narrative, allowing the viewer to understand the story on a broader, rather than intimate, level (this is not to say that there are no intimate moments in the film). Without being aligned by the camera to the point of view of a particular character, the audience must decipher for themselves how to respond to the internal and external conflicts that each of these individuals must face within the confines of a corrupted society.