Telling stories of dance and identity

Film festivals exist throughout the world - from the obscure to the three big ones (Berlin Film Festival, Venice Film Festival and Cannes Film Festival where the red carpet is just as important as the films for some peculiar reason). It is for this reason that they are referred to as ‘The Big Three’.

Nonetheless, making it to any of the three is in itself worthy and a showcase of how qualified an artist’s work is. So, it comes as an honour that Venice, the oldest of the three, will screen Pakistani filmmaker Saim Sadiq’s film, Darling.

Starring Abdullah Malik, Mehar Bano, Nadia Afgan and a pool of actors, it is a riveting story. With Laal Kabootar and Cake cinematographer Mo Azmi attached as director of photography, the film, according to a press statement is “set in a dance theatre in Lahore” and “tells the story of a young boy and trans girl.”

The role of Alina ‘Darling’ is being essayed by Alina Khan, who will be making her debut with the film.

With a running time of 16 minutes, Darling is the first film from Pakistan to enter the prestigious Venice Film Festival and comes from Saim Sadiq, a Lahore-based filmmaker who is currently pursuing a graduate degree in film direction from Columbia University.

Before Darling, a short film by Sadiq called Nice Talking to You was selected at South by South West (SXSW) 2019, Palm Springs International Shortsfest 2019 and won Vimeo’s Best Director award at Columbia University Film Festival 2018.

Sadiq is, according to the press statement, currently developing a pilot for MakeReady in Los Angeles and working on his first feature, Gulaab, which was selected for the Open Doors Hub at the 2018 Locarno Film Festival. Darling will be shown under the short films banner ‘Orizzonti Short Films Competition’ and will compete with films from Italy, Canada, France,Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Czech Republic, India and many more.

The world premiere of Darling will take place at Venice in September 2020.