Silent Waters Essay

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Film Review Film: Khamosh Pani (Silent Waters) Genre: Drama Written and directed by Sabiha Sumar Language: Punjabi and Urdu (With English sub-titles) This film is based on a true story of a Pakistani village, which is shown as a microcosm of the pangs of separation that Sikh families had to bear when India was divided in 1947 to create Pakistan as a separate Muslim country in South Asia. This is also the story of how religious extremism, as a state policy, was enacted in order to stifle resistance against dictatorship and forestall the spillover of a socialist revolution that just occurred in Afghanistan across the border. Before its division, India (comprising the present-day Pakistan and Bangladesh also) had been a colony of the British for 200 years. The film is set in Charkhi village of Pakistani Punjab, which had a mix population of Sikh and Muslims until 1947. The village is also home to the second holiest shrine of Sikhism after Golden Temple in Amritsar in India. In 1947, almost all the Sikhs fled the town—or were driven out—and crossed into India; but this flight from the newly created Muslim country was not peaceful, especially for women. Scores of them were kidnapped by Muslim zealots; some were killed by their own men in order to ‘save their honor’. Silent Waters is a French-German-Pakistani co-production with a cost from India and Pakistan. It was filmed, just before the 9/11 attacks on the U.S., entirely in Wah town and Rawalpindi city of Pakistan. It depicts the rise of religious obscurantism in 1979, when a military dictator, Ziaul Haq, took over power in Pakistan by deposing—and then hanging—popularly elected Prime Minister Zulifikar Ali Bhutto. It was released in 2003 and has won seven awards, including Golden Leopard (Best Film), Best Actress and Best Direction at the 56th Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland. This is
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