These Birds Walk was top of the film list today. Showing only in the Gate, Notting Hill, it was easy to get to - District Line from West Brompton straight to Notting Hill Gate, take Exit 2, and it's right in front of you. I was early, and ended up queueing for a ticket behind a rather timid man, who explained that he needed four tickets. Then a woman behind him explained to the person on the till that this was the director..! with whom we were to have a Q+A afterwards.
I was second to take a seat in the cinema. Deposited my bag on the convenient shelf beside my seat, and sank into the plush upholstery. They really do have comfortable seats! The film was late starting - whether because they were doing stuff with the director, or flogging stuff, I don't know. Certainly, one woman introduced herself as one of the distributors - this was a private screening, organised by the distributors - and pointed out that dvds were available from her husband, who was sitting over there with the cash box. You could also get dvds of their previous release, The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Now, that's a film I never got to see and was disappointed that I didn't - but I passed on actually buying it.
The cinema soon filled up, almost entirely with people of Indian / Pakistani origin, by the looks of it, and we were off. Eventually. This is a documentary about street children in Karachi, and particularly the work of the Edhi foundation. At a bit over an hour long, it's a stunningly filmed piece, following the lives of a few specific children. There are brief interviews with the head of the foundation, after whom it's named, but, as confirmed in the Q+A afterwards, he was generally too busy to take much interest in the film. It's an intimate peek into the kids' lives, and shows, among other things, one of the ambulance drivers returning a bunch of them to their families. One kid, who's run away, is terrified to go back lest they beat him. Another lives in Taliban territory. The poor driver is scared to go there, and surprised when he does, to discover what a wasteland this kid is from. There are no houses there! Finally, the house appears, over the hill. The family admits that they tend to leave all of the kids at Edhi from time to time - it's handy, and they love it there. The driver, mind you, would rather be delivering dead bodies to the morgue - that's another facet of the service, and one that he gets paid for..
It looks beautiful, but frankly the Q+A afterwards was more interesting. One of the co-directors, who also produced and acted as cinematographer, Omar Mullick, was on hand to answer questions. I wasn't expecting much, given his timid demeanour in the lobby, and how reticent he was to say a few words beforehand. But my, he was fascinating! Turns out that he studied political philosophy in college, then scrapped graduate school to go make films. He also works as a conflict photographer for National Geographic - no wonder the film looks so well.
He was asked what the title refers to. Well, we'll have to make our own judgement about that, because he declined to answer. I guess the title wasn't his idea. Anyway, he had plenty to say about how he had wanted to focus on individuals, to make us empathise with them, because the last thing he wanted was to produce a piece of "poverty porn". Hear, hear! He pointed out how making this film was different from making a similar film in the States, where he studied, because, essentially, people hear "Pakistan" and think of poverty automatically. It becomes stylised. He wanted to get out of that trap. He explained how he had edited out coverage of a disabled child, because the film wasn't all about that child, and the image would have detracted from the rest of the film.
Someone asked him about his coverage of religion in the film, and he had interesting things to say about having grown up in secular Britain, and how he had wanted to portray the sincerity of these people's faith, in a respectful way. And someone else asked him about how institutions have failed in Pakistan, leaving the job to charities, which he thought a very insightful question. This led him into talking about the founder of Edhi, after whom the organisation was named, and who, as a young man, made his way overland to Britain, where he was so impressed by the welfare state that he determined to reproduce it in Pakistan. A truly remarkable man.
After the film, I hopped over to Tesco to buy some Indian food for dinner, having been inspired by the film. My trip home afterwards was not so straightforward. There was no sign of a District Line train in Notting Hill Gate, and given that there was a delay until the next Circle Line train, and a huge crowd on the platform, indicating that there hadn't been a train in a while, I said I'd better take the Circle Line when it came. Mind you, there is no stop on the Circle Line within walking distance of my home, but I said I'd change to the District Line at Gloucester Road, where I'd have a greater choice of trains. However, when I got there, the Westbound platform indicator said there were no trains at all departing from that platform that day! I knew the Circle wasn't, but the District Line should've been.. so I ended up taking the Piccadilly Line back to Earl's Court and walking from there. What are they doing - preparing us for the strike tomorrow?! At least the chicken tikka samosas I got were delicious. Planning to have the curry soon.
Tomorrow is 1984, at the Playhouse. Better do my homework first, both on the book, and on what buses to get back, given that the strike starts tomorrow evening!
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