This first feature by documentary filmmaker Sabiha Sumar is an intense and rare cinematic perspective of the political evolution of Pakistan, the advent of fundamentalism and the fragile rights of ordinary women. It is the hot summer of 1979 in the halcyon Pakistani Punjabi village of Charkhi near the Indian border. Ayesha is a widow, haunted by the horrors of Partition. She lives for her 18-year-old son Saleem, who has yet to find his way in the world. He is deeply in love with the proud and beautiful Zubeida who is planning to be a career woman. All seems blissful in the village until the news of General Zia coming th power, and the arrival of two strangers from Lahore preaching revolutionary Islamic values. The young village men, including Saleem, quickly gets swept up in the religious fervour. Matters intensify with the arrival of Sikh pilgrims from India who come to worship at the local shrine. Saleem breaks off with liberal Zubeida and begins carrying a gun. Ayesha has a mysterious visitor who forces her to unveil a shocking secret with catastrophic consequences.
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