•• Foreign Film Edition ••
DUKHTAR [DAUGHTER][2014, PAKISTAN - Urdu, Pashto]
Having directed short films NADAH (2003), TOBA TEK SINGH (2005) and LONG AFTER (2006), Quetta-born AFIA NATHANIEL's debut feature DUKHTAR premiered at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival, turned heads, beat the odds and became Pakistan's official submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Award. Refusing to acquiesce to Pakistani feature films which tend to cater a lot to Bollywood-themed or "male viewer" dominated preference, Nathaniel went against all odds to tell the story of women's struggles and empowerment. True enough, it took her ten years to source the financing for her film, and being the first female filmmaker in Pakistan certainly didn't help. "In Pakistan itself, what this means is that if your feature film does not have women dancing in it or gyrating on the screen with hardly any clothes on, then no one is going to finance the film. There is no “item number” song in it, so to speak – nothing to cater to the male fantasy. Pakistani feature films are all about catering to the male ego and male fantasy," the forty-two year-old shared. The idea of her film's premise came from a true story she heard in 1999, of a mother in Pakistan who kidnapped her daughters and ran away from her husband to save them from forced marriage. "The story refused to leave me. Her journey of escape was a harrowing tale spread over several years. What remained in my mind was the vision of this one woman and her extraordinary courage. I come from a family of very strong women, women who have endured very tough lives in hopes of a better one for their children," Nathaniel explained.
Similarly, the film DUKHTAR (Daughter in Urdu) is an emotionally resonant thriller which takes us on a ride through Pakistan as a mother, Allah Rakhi (SAMIYA MUMTAZ), risks everything to save her ten year-old daughter Zainab (SALEHA AREF) from an arranged marriage to a much older chieftain from another clan, Tor Gul (ABDULLAH JAAN). The marriage is set up between Tor Gul and Zainab's father, Daulat Khan (ASIF KHAN) with the hope to end the strife between their two clans. Having endured a life resulting from such conditions which place women in near non-existential power, the desperate mother sets out on foot with her uncomprehending daughter, setting a roiled hunt by her own family and the bridegroom's henchmen. They soon find some protection from a truck driver, Sohail (MOHIB MIRZA), who reluctantly shields them from their pursuers, and together they set off on the vertiginous mountain routes towards Lahore, in the hopes of a new beginning.
Amongst its many virtues, what I personally like most, is that the film depicts a journey which is not just for the daughter, but Allah Rakhi's own passage to self-redemption and fulfilment, after living her curtailed life in servitude. Nathaniel handsomely blends her palette of leaden tones in the film with dashes of bright colors throughout. Amidst the bleak winter and barren landscapes of the mountains, informing the mood of the characters and its storyline, we are somehow constantly reminded of hope and courage through a series of contrasting, lively colors, especially seen in Sohail's elaborately decorated truck. Nathaniel shared, "I think we have such a colorful culture and palette within the country that I wanted to stay true to it. Put the camera anywhere and there’s a burst of vibrancy and color. So even just the truck cutting through these mountainscapes and the roads – the truck itself is a bright symbol of any truck driver’s own sense of culture, poetry and art. In our poetry and in our culture, that symbol means something and people use color and symbols everywhere that they can. I wanted this film to be a celebration, even though the film is about a serious topic. The film celebrates the life and the courage of this mother and to me, the palette speaks very honestly about what’s happening." DUKHTAR manages to convey its strong social overtones of the child marriages practiced in tribal regions of the country within a fairly paced thriller functioning with capable performances especially by forty-six year-old actress Mumtaz, and realistically scripted dialogues.
Rating: B+
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