Sarah Erulkar obituary

Sarah Erulkar, the documentary director, who has died aged 92, was something of an outsider in the realm of postwar British film-making, being Indian-born, Jewish and a woman. While outwardly mild-mannered and self-effacing, however, she had an inner feistiness that ensured she quickly came to prominence and her strength found expression in many of the 80-plus documentaries she directed over a career that spanned 40 years. Of course Erulkar also had great talent as well as determination. When she started out in London at the illustrious Shell Film Unit in 1946, instead of the customary gradual ascent from technician or scriptwriter to director, she was promoted to director on her second commission, Flight for Tomorrow (1947), a film about the postwar repurposing of military aircraft for civilian use. That year she also directed Lord Siva Danced, a portrait of the celebrated Indian dancer Ram Gopal that had significant cultural impact not only in India – where it came to be treasured as a documentary classic – but also in Britain, where it won huge accolades and triggered enthusiasm for Indian dance in the west. When Erulkar went freelance several years later she made a similar impact as director of District Nurse (1952), a beautiful depiction of a day in the life of two nurses based in England’s rural south-east. Over the next 30 years her work traversed an eclectic range of subjects and genres and her ability to bring universal appeal to any subject, however specialised, secured a steady stream of commissions from the Central Office of Information (COI), the National Coal Board Film Unit, the Gas Council, The General Post Office (GPO) and many others. She was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata), daughter of Flora and David Erulkar. Her father was from the historic Bene Israel community of Jews in India, and was a highly regarded barrister who had represented Mahatma Gandhi. After the imprisonment of Gandhi in 1922 he found it hard to get work in India, so came to London in 1928, when Sarah was just a young girl. She developed a taste for the arts at St Paul’s girls school, in Hammersmith, and it was a screening of the classic film Night Mail (1936) that sealed her passion for documentary. She went on to study sociology at Bedford College, London, which had been relocated to Cambridge during the second world war, before plucking up the confidence to knock on the door of the Shell Film Unit. It was an auspicious move, as not only did Shell provide an invaluable apprenticeship for Erulkar, it was also where she met her future husband, Peter de Normanville. They married in 1950. As well as the professional and creative freedom that the Shell job afforded her, Erulkar later spoke of the interracial tolerance she encountered. “Shell was very exciting, I suddenly felt that my colour didn’t matter,” she said. If being Indian and a woman was not an obstacle at Shell, being married and a woman definitely was. On completion of The History of the Helicopter (1951), which won first prize for best short film at the 1952 Venice festival of documentary and short film, Arthur Elton, who ran the Shell unit, advised that her role ought now to be “to put out Peter’s slippers”. Gender discrimination pervaded the workplace in Britain at the time but De Normanville was supportive of his wife’s ambition, and Erulkar later recounted that her husband had forcefully declared: “I married a film director and you’re going to stay a film director.” They were a glamorous, bohemian couple and paid no heed to the reservations that both sets of parents had about their marriage. Peers in the art, literary and film world would flock to the parties they threw in their north London home, which were enlivened by generous offerings of the couple’s favourite cocktail, black velvet. While De Normanville would remain at Shell for another 14 years and gain a reputation as a director of scientific-themed films, Erulkar went freelance after five years there. Ironically, being a woman was a prerequisite for her first freelance commission, as World Wide Films were on the lookout for a female director for their COI-sponsored District Nurse. Later career highlights included the environmental film The Air My Enemy (1971), which brought her another award at the Venice festival, and the visually stunning Picture to Post (1969), made for the GPO, which MGM selected to tour in support of their feature release Alfred the Great, starring David Hemmings, meaning it had what was then the biggest theatrical release of any sponsored film since the second world war. Picture to Post also won a 1970 Bafta award for best short film. In retirement in Hampstead, north London, Erulkar pursued a passion for antiques and traded in them. In 2010 she was invited out of hiding by the British Film Institute (BFI), when her work was celebrated at a BFI Southbank event in London. One highlight of the evening came when her old friend, the acclaimed cinematographer Wolfgang Suschitsky, stood up and declared that he had been in love with her since the day he had met her back in the 1940s. After watching her films and hearing her gracious responses to questions, members of the audience were similarly smitten. Peter died in 1999. Sarah is survived by their two daughters, Siri and Pierrette, and by five grandchildren. • Sarah Erulkar, documentary film-maker, born 2 May 1923; died 29 May 2015