Tiger Stripes: The Spirit of Woman That Refuses To Be Held Down Anymore
Dark Star Pictures
Tiger Stripes is a coming of age, Malaysian film written and directed by Amanda Nell Eu. It follows protagonist Zaffan (Zafreen Zairizal), who becomes the first of her friends to get her period.
When she is harassed, bullied and shamed by multiple family members and friends, Zaffan finds she has to figure out and navigate these changes herself.
into the jungle
Zaffan is an imaginative, headstrong, outgoing Malaysian 12-year-old, going to an all girls school. She and her best friends Miriam (Piqa) and Farah (Deena Ezral), spend their free time hanging out at their favorite water hole swimming, talking and playing.
When Zaffan wakes up one night, having gotten blood on her bed, she calls to her overbearing mother Munah (June Lojong), who comes in to check, and immediately states that Zaffan is “dirty now”. Munah puts her in a shower to clean up.
As Zaffan starts changing, she gets itchy rashes, hears growling and starts seeing a “demon” woman in the trees. She begins feeling angrier and finds herself fully distracted from school and family life.
Miriam and Farah start listening to and perpetuating ignorant rumors about periods, how women go crazy, smell bad and disappear into the jungle. As Zaffan’s “strange” behaviors escalate, Farah begins bullying her, calling her a slut and starts spreading nasty rumors about her around school.
With this transformation, Zaffan becomes more rebellious, not listening to the conservative and toxic patriarchic beliefs about how a woman should act, speak and dress. Instead of fearing it, as she’s conditioned to do, she slowly embraces her inner “wild” and realizes there’s freedom in it.
Dark Star Pictures
what is happening here?
Zaffan goes camping with a group of girls from the school, training to be cadets. While camping, in the middle of the night, Zaffan hears the low growl of a tiger, then a scream from one of the other girls.
She finds out that, a girl who went on her own to pee, also saw a “demon” in the trees, and a few of the others hear things that only Zaffan could hear before.
The next day, Farah blames Zaffan for bringing the sounds and demon to the camp, even though she is no longer on her period. When getting ready to go home, the girls realize that someone is missing and head into the jungle together to find her.
Zaffan, with her “tiger demon” heightened senses, strays from the group as they are on the wrong track. When Zaffan finds the lost girl up in a tree, the girl states she is there so the senior girls wouldn’t make fun of her. Zaffan then realizes that it isn’t just her who is starting to change.
As the symptoms start to affect all of the girls, the village begins to question whether or not a true demon is infecting the girls, or, could it be more of a thing that needs to be learned about and celebrated?
Dark Star Pictures
in all honesty…
Tiger Stripes is a hypnotic film that brings to life the stigmas against girls and women, put upon us by the poisonous patriarchy. It inspires young women to defy all of the terrible things they have been told about their bodies, and, to become their true authentic selves.
Zairizal shines and delights embodying Zaffan, who authentically represents the battle cry of the spirit of women. In her first movie and at such a tender age, she provides a fierce energy and presence that most performers her age would not be able to imitate.
The most beautiful part of this film was the intricately woven metaphors, subtly lingering throughout. In fact it may take a second glance to pick them all up.
My favorite was when the girls were watching a video of a tiger walking down a road, surrounded by men who eventually killed it. For me, that was a not so subtle reality that women face in the world, should we try to be free and wild amongst men.
As things are, toxic masculinity has done everything possible to keep girls and women as lesser.
Dark Star Pictures
From stigmatizing our natural bodies as ugly or dirty; denial of our healthcare and lack of medical studies over the years for women’s bodies; rape; using purity and “appropriate” behavior as a goal for little girls; to making us smaller and silenced, it literally and figuratively kills us everyday.
This sort of film reminds us where women still are today, and what we should be doing to put an end to the stigmas put upon us by toxic masculinity. We were never meant to be “proper”, we were created with divine feminine fire that should be seen and celebrated all over the world.
People with uteruses are the bringers of life, and none should be mistreated or underestimated. We need to see ourselves as the goddesses we are and deny any shred of the toxic masculine to rule us, which includes not putting one another down using the language and stereotypes of our oppressors.
No matter what we were told growing up; no matter the toxic masculine religions forced upon us say, and no matter the rules placed on our bodies, we should continue to fight for our collective freedom and inherent rights, with all of the magnificent ferociousness of tigers in cages aching to be set free.
Bravo to both cast and crew for bringing to light what we still need to change and illustrating through Zaffan, that our collective spirits cannot and will not be silenced any longer.