Pakistan is a regular presence at many of the major stops of the global film festival circuit, and this year’s Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) will have Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy showcasing her documentary, A Journey of a Thousand Miles: Peacekeepers.
Peacekeepers follows the personal stories of five Bangladeshi policewomen who are deployed to the earthquake-stricken Haiti in 2010 as members of the UN peacekeeping mission.
Sharmeen shares directorial credits with Indian filmmaker Geeta Gandbhir in this documentary, which not only details their gruelling journey throughout the mission where they are considered with mistrust, but also their return home, where they face challenges of a different kind: familial disapproval of leaving home for work.
“The role of United Nations peacekeepers is a true ‘mission impossible,’ dropping soldiers who literally don’t speak each other’s languages into foreign countries rife with chaos and violence. Anything that goes wrong can become an international incident. Good luck,” reads the description about the documentary on the TIFF website.
Pakistan also makes its mark in the form of the premiere of popular actor Ali Kazmi’s Hollywood debut film, Beeba Boys.
Also read: Ali Kazmi only gets meaner in Deepa Mehta’s Beeba Boys Directed by Deepa Mehta, the film sees him as a trigger-happy member of a super-slick Indo-Canadian gang. Having acted in several American TV shows and video games, Kazmi finally gets to prove his acting mettle on the Hollywood big screen.
He Named Me Malala, the much-awaited documentary on Malala’s family life in central England, also finally hits the screens at TIFF.
The festival begins tomorrow.
