Playing the role of a pregnant woman in the soon to be released short film, Giving Life, was a totally new experience for Vilimaina Waqanokonoko.
Giving Life is a locally produced short film featuring local actors and production crew in a production by Rajnel Prasad’s Bright Future Films and the Fiji National University’s College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences (formerly known as the Fiji School of Medicine).
The film addresses the complications associated with pregnancies, projecting the need for women to always seek professional medical help as soon as they find out they are pregnant.
Even though this was not the first time the 23-year-old Vilimaina has acted in a major production, the role she had to play was something totally foreign and different.
Totally different from the dominant and strong woman character she had to play in the Scripture Union’s Queen Esther production in 2010.
“In this role there are lots of emotions. It was a challenge for me because I had to play a pregnant woman who has a miscarriage.
“When he (director) told me about my role, it took me a long to time to decide yes or no because the role is actually a pregnant woman, like I have never felt like a pregnant woman or gone through a miscarriage.
“What encouraged me is that the movie was centred on one of the Millennium Development Goals. Goal number five which is to improve maternal health, so I thought maybe this could help improve other mothers out there, pregnant women of course,” Vilimaina said.
The Soso villager from Kadavu plays the character Ana in the short film and she, as Vilimaina describes her, “Ana is a very humble lady and she is from a poor background and she finds out for the first time she is pregnant. But other than that Ana depends a lot on her husband she is a housewife and works as a house maid but her husband is very supportive of her”.
She said the fault in her character was based on the fact that her character, Ana, is a typical woman raised in the village and unaware of the importance of seeking medical help.
“From my perspective Ana is a very humble girl but the problem with her is that she listens to what other people say and I think that is the reason why she went through the miscarriage.
“The message behind Ana’s story is that when you know that you’re pregnant it’s best to see the doctor,” Vilimaina said.
Vilimaina first got wind of the short film in August last year when she met director Prasad during the Hibiscus Festival, where she was a contestant.
She was also in the middle of trying to complete her postgraduate diploma in biology at the University of the South Pacific but Vilimaina felt the tough role she had to play as Ana could fit in well with her busy schedule in 2013.
“So how I actually got it? I guess it was from watching a lot of movies and before we actually did the filming we had to practise over and over again and the writer, Ashfaqq, encouraged me to do my best,” she said.
Vilimaina describes her role in the short film as encouraging and also that it was an eye-opener.
When asked if she would like to continue acting, Vilimaina says she plans on continuing her education but will look forward to more acting roles if those films or acting projects will help people improve their lives.
