Composed, coordinated, and co-created by Seemab Gul, the twenty-minute short film Mulaqat (SandStorm) stars Parizae Fatima, Hamza Mushtaq, Ayesha Shoaib Ahmed, Nabila Khan, Aun Ali Saleem, Masuma Halai Khwaja, and Qasim Ali. ‘Mulaqat’ rotates around a high school girl named Zara whose life overturns after she imparts an erotic dance video to her virtual boyfriend. The last option starts to coerce her into meeting him face to face. “Will Zara yield to this outsider’s rising requests or will she set herself free?” questions the mystery.
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As per one of the makers of the short film, ‘Mulaqat’ world debuted at La Biennale di Venezia in September 2021 and has since debuted and kept on being screened at the most renowned film celebrations all over the planet including The Sundance Institute where it was one of the 59 short movies for the 2022 program chose from an unequaled high 10,374 entries.
The movie won 3 honors including Best Film, Best Director for Seemab Gul, Best Cinematographer for Alberto Balázs, and a Special Mention Ischia Film Festival in 2022. The New Yorker Magazine has additionally obtained the film for their screening Room.
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As per Dawn Images, HollyShorts is an Oscar-qualifying celebration for short-film classes, and the winners of these three honors are naturally placed into the Oscar race. Hallelujah won the Grand Prix for the celebration’s best short, Sandstorm (Mulaqat) accepted the distinction as the best surprisingly realistic short, and Scale won for liveliness.
The co-maker of the film shared the news on his Instagram.
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The motivation behind the short film, as per The New Yorker is an occurrence that unfurled back in 2009 when Ghadeer Ahmed, an Egyptian youngster recorded a video of herself moving in a short dress at her friend’s home, the sort of thing young ladies would do in private, in secret,” noticed a piece in The New Yorker in May. “She imparted the video and a few photos to her boyfriend. After three years, after they had separated, he began sending her messages. On the off chance that she didn’t reunite with him, he’d post the video and photographs on the web.
Seemab Gul shared her view on the short film.
“This story about growing up explores internet dating in a moderate Muslim society. The film questions the externalization of the female body and its relationship to respect in Pakistani culture. Pointing on female organizations, this individual and political film performs the craving to acquire independence from cruel cultural limitations.”