FLOATING LAMP OF THE SHADOW VALLEY
THURSDAY 28 SEPTEMBER AT 1PM
Country Kashmir Running Time 64 mins Format DVCAM Director/Producer/Dop Rajesh S Jala
9 year old Arif, born out of a relationship imposed on an abducted 12 year old by a militant, has the weight of the world on his shoulders: he has to provide for his mother and 4 younger siblings. Everyday Arif steers his boat back and forth, through ice, vegetation and water lilies, on Dal Lake, to earn some hard cash for his family. Come winter or summer, Arif has to row.
The film switches between the two opposing sides to Arif's life: playing merrily with his brothers and sister, guiding his siblings in the absence of a father figure, rowing his boat for cash, travelling to town to get a new watertight roof for the family’s timber home, selling produce amongst adults on someone’s behalf at the lake market.
The conflict between India and Pakistan over Kashmir is one of the longest standing conflicts in the world. It still wounds the life of Kashmiri Indians and Pakistanis today, The film narrates and shows how on a number of occasions even Arif gets entangled in militant action and battle.
The landscape is spellbinding and the lake mesmerising. Arif’s predicament is touched on with care, never melodramatically, never aloofly, always compassionately. We get the image of a life that is hard to live, yet nevertheless interspersed with moments of joy set against the Kashmiri scenery. ER
An ESP Films presentation. website
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