Sandstorm

Our complex relationships with technology have become a regular subject of contemporary cinema and Seemab Gul’s quietly daring drama Sandstorm shows that it remains fertile ground. In this instance, the plot revolves around the teenage Zara (Parizae Fatima) who finds herself in an increasingly uncomfortable situation after sharing a video with a guy she met online. ‘Decent girls don’t dance dirty’ laughs her friend while filming the video of Zara gyrating, but soon the implications of this statement, and the way it establishes the sentiment of a patriarchal command over women’s bodies, becomes the backdrop against which Zara’s personal difficulties play out.

These difficulties are sold by Fatima, who spends a lot of time in the frame, reacting to the subtleties of people’s comments. When her virtual boyfriend describes the video as ‘sexy’ and later ‘slutty’ before revealing that he has saved a copy despite Zara setting it to automatically erase, what had seemed like silly fun becomes more ominous. This shift is reflected on Zara’s face as she becomes lost in worry, trapped between a desire for individual freedom, the predatory turn her relationship has taken, and the implicit cultural mores of Pakistan. The camerawork by Alberto Balazs has an almost documentary quality, creating an intimate environment in which Fatima has time to just stew.

What is perhaps most impressive about Sandstorm is the way that this drama is primarily psychologically. While Zara becomes aware that friends are tittering about the situation – and her boyfriend’s threats to expose her if she refuses to meet him make explicit the video’s scandalous potential – they seem incidental to Zara’s own internal journey. As such, when she makes her final decision, in a beautifully conceived and poetic sequence, it is all the more filled with meaning.

Director, screenplay: Seemab Gul
Cast: Parizae Fatima, Hamza Mushtaq
Producers: Abid Aziz Merchant, Seemab Gul
Cinematography: Alberto Balazs
Editing: Raluca Petre
Music: Baluji Shrivastav
Production company: Sanat Initiative (Pakistan)
Venue: Sundance Film Festival (Short Film Program)
In Urdu
20 minutes