Drawing on tension between construction and illusion, House of Women explores the gaps in representation and the spaces opened up by the “fiction machine” of the 1940s British studio system, which presented a very controlled colonial vision of the British Raj and its people, often replacing Indian actors with British actors.
Beneath this, House of Women examines the audition process and the violence of the camera. The film plays with the inherent voyeurism of the director – and by inference the viewer – in watching young hopefuls competing for a role.