Policy lessons from movies: NERO’S GUESTS
Nero’s Guests is a documentary film directed by Deepa Bhatia and features P. Sainath, a journalist, who is the Founder Editor of the People’s Archives of Rural India.
By the medium of the film, a parallel is drawn between the famous Roman Emperor Nero and his guests and the ruling class in India that is oblivious to the miserable conditions of farmers in the country. Nero threw a garden party and invited all the elites in Rome, however, the issue faced by him was of illumination. So, to provide for ‘nightly illumination’ for his party, prisoners, criminals, and local people were burnt at stake, while the guests at the party did not raise any objection to such an act.
