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Friday March 29, 2024

Documentary ‘A Walnut Tree’ screened

By Mobarik A Virk
December 03, 2016

Islamabad

“I can’t take it anymore! This is no life. I have to return home!” cried the old man bitterly.

“But you cannot. You will be killed there. You will be dead,” argued the son.

“I am as dead here as I would be there,” replied the old man.

The dialogues were from the documentary screened at the French Embassy to mark the second edition of the film festival ‘Human Rights Through Cinematography’, which started on November 15 and will continue till December 10, 2016.

Today the documentary, titled ‘A Walnut Tree’, prepared by Ammar Aziz, a graduate of the National College of the Arts (NCA) was screened.

The film highlighted the difficult life of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), who were compelled to live in the temporary camps in wake of the ongoing ‘Operation Zarb-e-Azb’ against terrorists in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan.

The old man was forced to abandon his home in the Tribal Area and along with his son, daughter-in-law and three grand children, came to a camp on the outskirts of Peshawar in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

It was a gripping documentary which kept the audience in rapt silence throughout 80 minutes duration, except for a few gasps of awe and anguish when they watched a young child drinking water from a filthy pond and the old man narrating heart-wrenching events, which took place, as they travelled on foot to get out of the troubled areas and reach the safety of the confines of camps set up by the.

The old man was a teacher in his village. He opted to become a teacher against picking a better job from the opportunities, which came his way because he cared for the children in his village.

He loved to listen to music and himself wrote poetry as well.

He lovingly wrote a poem about this ‘Walnut Tree’ which his father has planted when he was young. “On his death bed he told me to take care of this walnut tree because he wanted it to grow tall and strong and wished his next generations to play in its shade and taste its fruit. I hope that tree is still there,” he said listlessly.

“This is no life here in the camp. I have nothing to do here and nobody to talk to.”

“I want to go back home. I can’t live here any longer,” the old man tells his son and daughter-in-law, trying to wipe away the tears pouring out of his eyes and spilling on his wrinkled cheeks.

The son and the daughter-in-law argues with him as the wide-eyed grand-daughter looks from one to the other.

The son tried to sooth and amuse him and even takes him to a musical function. But the next morning the old man has disappeared. The whole family is in a turmoil. The son, anticipating that father has gone back to his home, wanted to follow him. But the wife was concerned about his safety.

But the son decides to follows his father back to their village. When he reaches there he saw the destroyed school building where he had studied and where his father used to teach the children of the village.

“I think he would have died by seeing this building in this condition. He loved this school more than his home,” the son muttered while sitting on a broken wall, holding his head in both his hands.

And then he returns to the camp!

It was a beautiful documentary, aptly highlighting the pain and miseries of those living in these IDP camps and the emotional and psychological trauma they have been going through.

Earlier, before the start of the documentary, the Ambassador of France Mrs Martine Dorance, spoke briefly, explaining the event and touching on the subject of the documentary.