Democracy In Flames
“The buzz words for Pakistan are
democracy, nuclear capability,
fundamentalism, extremism, terrorism, and sometimes cricket”
Democracy In Flames is a journey into the heart of Pakistan’s democratic process in action, and provides a timeless historical snapshot at a turning point in world history. Obama, Iran, Afghanistan, India, and even China are on the borders of a country increasingly seen as having a pivotal role in world affairs. This film follows a student from London to his hometown of Lahore, possessed with the grievances of a generation, and charged with monitoring free and fair elections.
The Pakistan elections took place under the cloud of the assassination of the iconic Benazir Bhutto, and the last excesses of the Bush-backed Musharraf regime. Politics student Taimur Rehman and his wife Mehwish flew into a dangerous and combustible political atmosphere. This observational documentary filmed by director Taimur Khan is a unique window into the murky world of Pakistani politics at a grass-roots level. Pakistan has never been seen like this before - non-hijab wearing women out and about campaigning at rallies, getting involved on the day itself, questioning and actually finding evidence of vote rigging and other irregularities that the status quo tried to cover up.
In the course of filming Taimur Rehman, adapted a famous poem and turned it into a song. With the help of films director Taimur Khan they recorded and produce a music video which became a huge hit on YouTube with more then 100000 hits. An unexpected twist in the narrative, and indicative of a hidden constituency in Pakistan that doesn’t fall into the clichaic ‘religious’ and pseudo ‘democratic’ models that usually pervade analysis in the media. There is something else going on, and has silently being going on for years – the silent majority – a strange mixture of the feudal illiterate and a westernized, educated, middle-class are fighting harder than ever for some notion of ‘democracy’. Maybe in the future there will be more buzz words for Pakistan – poetry, films, music, and justice. The disturbing alternative will be ‘Talibanistan’.
The film shows the true dynamics and structure of a society desperately trying to re-invent itself in a region of utter turmoil. The nature of that re-invention will affect us all and this makes Democracy in Flames essential and compelling viewing for an international audience.
fundamentalism, extremism, terrorism, and sometimes cricket”
Democracy In Flames is a journey into the heart of Pakistan’s democratic process in action, and provides a timeless historical snapshot at a turning point in world history. Obama, Iran, Afghanistan, India, and even China are on the borders of a country increasingly seen as having a pivotal role in world affairs. This film follows a student from London to his hometown of Lahore, possessed with the grievances of a generation, and charged with monitoring free and fair elections.
The Pakistan elections took place under the cloud of the assassination of the iconic Benazir Bhutto, and the last excesses of the Bush-backed Musharraf regime. Politics student Taimur Rehman and his wife Mehwish flew into a dangerous and combustible political atmosphere. This observational documentary filmed by director Taimur Khan is a unique window into the murky world of Pakistani politics at a grass-roots level. Pakistan has never been seen like this before - non-hijab wearing women out and about campaigning at rallies, getting involved on the day itself, questioning and actually finding evidence of vote rigging and other irregularities that the status quo tried to cover up.
In the course of filming Taimur Rehman, adapted a famous poem and turned it into a song. With the help of films director Taimur Khan they recorded and produce a music video which became a huge hit on YouTube with more then 100000 hits. An unexpected twist in the narrative, and indicative of a hidden constituency in Pakistan that doesn’t fall into the clichaic ‘religious’ and pseudo ‘democratic’ models that usually pervade analysis in the media. There is something else going on, and has silently being going on for years – the silent majority – a strange mixture of the feudal illiterate and a westernized, educated, middle-class are fighting harder than ever for some notion of ‘democracy’. Maybe in the future there will be more buzz words for Pakistan – poetry, films, music, and justice. The disturbing alternative will be ‘Talibanistan’.
The film shows the true dynamics and structure of a society desperately trying to re-invent itself in a region of utter turmoil. The nature of that re-invention will affect us all and this makes Democracy in Flames essential and compelling viewing for an international audience.
Directed, Produced & Filmed
By
Taimur
Khan
© 2009 WIDEi Films
Ealing films Studios, London W5 5EP
UK 0871 855 2790
M +44 (0)7958 707232
Subscribe to
screening & newsletter
Article in Prospect Magazine
//
.....He
wore a peaked Che Guevara-style cap with a red hammer and sickle
badge over his dark, floppy fringe. In conversation, he enthused
about music and politics, cracking more jokes than one might expect
from a central committee member of his country’s Communist Workers
and Peasants party. ......
Khan convinced the band to make a video, shooting it himself in a few hours outside the scruffy London tower block where the band lived. The video was put on YouTube and got around 40,000 hits in its first week. (Even a chart-topping Pakistani video might get only 15,000.).....
To Read the full article please visit Prospect Magazine’s site here .http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2009/07/therealnewsfrompakistan/
Khan convinced the band to make a video, shooting it himself in a few hours outside the scruffy London tower block where the band lived. The video was put on YouTube and got around 40,000 hits in its first week. (Even a chart-topping Pakistani video might get only 15,000.).....
To Read the full article please visit Prospect Magazine’s site here .http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2009/07/therealnewsfrompakistan/
FILM Blog & Events
info@widei-films.com
UK 0871 855 2790
M +44 (0)7958 707232
UK 0871 855 2790
M +44 (0)7958 707232
WIDEi Films
Production & Post Production Company
Production & Post Production Company