After a successful tour of film festivals and its limited theatrical release last November, ‘Bhutto,’ Duane Baughman and Johnny O’Hara’s well research bio documentary about Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto, has its broadcast premiere on May 10, on PBS’ Independent Lens. Bhutto, the first woman to lead a Muslim country, was twice removed from her position as Prime Minister because of allegations of corruption.
After a period of voluntary exile in Dubai, she returned to Pakistan, and was about to become her country’s leader for a third time, when she was assassinated on December 27, 2007. Benazir was brilliant, brave, determined and charismatic. She is a character of heroic proportions and her larger than life story is well told in this well researched and compelling documentary.
Nobody knows how – or whether – Pakistan’s complex political and cultural realities would have evolved differently under Benazir Bhutto’s leadership. But this film certainly stimulates conjecture. And, it’s broadcast premiere comes at time when Pakistan and its leadership is under particularly exacting international scrutiny.
