A NEW film by filmmaker Sarmad Sultan Khoosat examines marriage and the expectations around it among south Asians.
Lali will be screened at the 70th BFI London Film Festival next week.
Khoosat, 47, told Eastern Eye observations of his family life influenced the movie. “Marriage as an institution is not questioned, as much as it is practised,” he said. “There is so much emotion, family, tradition and religion attached to it that we simply follow the path.”
Lali’s protagonist is Zeba, played by Mamya Shajaffar, a young woman regarded as cursed after the unexpected deaths of her previous fiancés. She marries Sajawal (Channan Hanif), a man carrying his own fears, insecurities and troubled history.
What begins as an uneasy marriage gradually moves into darker territory as desire, grief, superstition and paranoia collide, according to the film’s description.
It is set in Sahiwal, Pakistan, and rooted in Punjabi culture, and the film is said to be as much a pitch-black comedy as it is a domestic drama, with psychological tension and supernatural themes, too.
Khoosat said the film examines the difficulties that can accompany the early stages of marriage, particularly for a woman moving from her home into a new and unfamiliar one.
“I grew up in households with a lot of women,” he said, adding they are “much more interesting as characters because there is so much more to explore.”
South Asian societies often place women “into boxes and on the peripheries”, and the director wanted to explore what lies within those restrictions.
Sarmad Sultan KhoosatWaqar Ahmed Butt
Khoosat grew up in Lahore in a Punjabi environment, with an Urdu-speaking grandmother and he attended an Englishmedium school where Punjabi was not taught or encouraged. In Lali, the boundaries between the living and the dead begin to blur as the film examines a marriage caught between personal fears and wider social expectations, Khoosat said.
He reflected on the marriages of his parents and siblings, and those experiences helped shape his understanding of the wider family relationships when a couple gets married.
Lali was written by Khoosat and Sundus Hashmi. Its cast also includes Rasti Farooq, Farazeh Syed, Mehar Bano and Juggan Kazim. Lali’s editor and casting director, Saim Sadiq, previously worked on Joyland, with Khoosat as producer on acclaimed film.
It was the first Pakistani film in official selection at the Cannes Film Festival and won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize.
Khoosat paid tribute to Sadiq’s editing skills, describing him as someone willing to make difficult creative decisions.
Earlier this year, Lali had its world premiere in the panorama section of the 76th Berlin International Film Festival, becoming the first fully Pakistani-produced feature to premiere at the Berlinale.
For Khoosat, the screening of Lali at the BFI London Film Festival extends an international festival journey for a work that combines Pakistani social observation with a deliberately unpredictable cinematic form.
