Insights into women´s worlds 2003

German Premiere: Silent Waters (Kamosh Pani)

The widow Ayesha is leading a quiet and peaceful life in Pakistan. But when her son Saleem joins an islamic fundamentalist group everything in her life is falling apart. Sikh pilgrims come back to her village. This leads to the revelation of her long-hidden secret which goes back to the times of the separation between Pakistan and India

The film is a co-production by Flying Moon Filmproduction (Germany) with Unlimited S.A. (France) and Vidhi Films (Pakistan), in co-operation with ZDF/Das kleine Fernsehspiel and Arte. It is the debut of first time director Sabiha Sumar from Pakistan. Kirron Kher of DEVDAS fame and Aamir Malik play the lead.

Silent Waters (Kamosh Pani) is the only international feature production shot recently in Pakistan.

Awards

At the 56. Locarno International Film Festival Silent Waters (Kamosh Pani) was awarded the Golden Leopard as best film of the festival. Additionally, it won the Price of the Ecumenical Jury and the Leopard for best artist for Kirron Kher.

Sabiha Sumar

Sabiha Sumar studied filmmaking and Political Science at Sarah Lawrence College in New York from 1980 to 1983, then International Relations at the University of Cambridge in 1984-85.

She has used her documentaries to critique society and sensitise people about women’s lives. Her first film, Who Will Cast The First Stone focuses on working class women's protest against Islamic laws introduced in Pakistan in 1979 by General Zia's regime. Don’t Ask Why looks at the dreams and aspirations of a 17 year-old Muslim girl growing up in Pakistan against the backdrop of increasing religiosity in society.

Silent Waters (Khamosh Pani) is her first feature film.

Sabiha Sumar will be present at the German Premiere of her film at the TERRE DES FEMMES Filmfest on 16th of November in Tübingen.

Filmography

1988 Who will cast the first Stone
(for Channel Four, UK, 1987, Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco Film Festival)
1999 Don’t ask why (for ZDF/3Sat, 1999)
2003 Silent Waters - Khamosh Pani
2003 For a Place under the Heavens

Director’s Statement

While Silent Waters is set in times when history and politics are overwhelmingly present, it is about individual lives in the context of that history. It is also about the individual acts that make up this history. It is set in a Pakistan that contains both a timeless way of life and cataclysmic change. The film is the story of people who find ways to make a place home, to make sense of their tragedies, to find happiness and God through love and who sometimes conquer life and are sometimes defeated by it.

Silent Waters is the first film of its kind entirely shot in Pakistan. Film culture in Pakistan was virtually eliminated during the Islamisation years under President Zia ul Haq (1977 to 1988). My effort was to cast as many people as possible from around the location where we shot. I worked mainly with inexperienced talents and conducted acting workshops to train my cast. For the main character, I chose an Indian actress, Kirron Kher. When I met her for the first time, I immediately said to myself: “She is Ayesha.”

Story-telling is an important part of cultural life. I hope that my work will help to regenerate film culture in Pakistan and contribute to the growth of alternative cinema.

You can obtain further information about the Film Festival
by e-mail: filmfest@frauenrechte.de