The Berlin International Film Festival is about a week away now and Sarmad Khoosat’s latest feature “Lali” is set to debut. The film’s official trailer has been released and it’s certainly a venture into new territory for the director.
The entire trailer is a conversation between Zeba (played by Mamya Shajaffar) and Sajawal (played by Channan Hanif). Fully clad in wedding attire Sajawal asks Zeba about her previous engagements, all of whom died under mysterious circumstances.
He says he’s not like those other “pathetic” men. He’s strong. He won’t die so easily. Others aren’t so sure. Noor Jahan (played by Mehr Bano) believes Zeba is cursed. Bholi, their neighbour (played by Rasti Farooq), keeps chanting her name, morbidly fascinated by her existence.
As the wedding celebrations continue and the specter of death keeps hovering, the lines between the natural and supernatural seem to blur.
Sarmad Khoosat has dealt with symbolic imagery before. In “Manto”, he brought Saadat Hassan Manto’s stories and his subconscious to life. In “Kamli” he used folklore and animals as symbols to convey madness. Even in “Zindagi Tamasha” he presented the Kafkaesque story of Rahat Khwaja who is punished for what seems like nothing.
With “Lali” he seems to be fitting a darker lens onto his camera.
You can watch the trailer here.
Lali premieres at the Berlin International Film Festival on the Saturday the 14th of February (how romantic). Several other screenings are also available while the festival lasts with subtitles in both English and German.
Until then, we at PakistaniCinema.net are impatiently waiting for Lali’s premiere in Pakistan.
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