By Sabiha Sumar
AZMAISH follows Pakistani filmmaker Sabiha Sumar as she sets off on a journey to explore the intractable bond and irresolvable tension that defines Pakistan- its relationship with India. Sumar travels the two countries asking: how did growing fundamentalism bring Pakistan and India into the same dangerous threshold?
In Pakistan, Sumar visits a rural landowner whose property is home to a million people. He has much to say about Islamic fundamentalism, less about feudalism. In India, Sumar enlists her friend, the actor Kalki Koechlin, to explore the rise of Hindu fundamentalism. They speak with vocal advocates for India as a Hindu state, each woman despairing at the decline of secular thought and the narrowing of expression they see in both nations. Traveling and speaking as close friends, Sumar and Koechlin are thoughtful about the currents of history, economics and culture that inform the present moment in Pakistan and India, but well aware that they're unlikely to land on easy answers.
As nationalism surges in the United States and around the globe, this urgent film is an excellent way for communities to enter into larger conversations about fundamentalism, intolerance and the radically changing political landscapes shaping our world.
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