‘What Parents Will Say’ doesn’t portray Pakistan in negative light, says Iram Haq

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Pakistani-origin actress-director Iram Haq’s film ‘What Parents Will Say’, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, is a bold take on female oppression among south Asian families. It is a horror story of a free-spirited Norwegian schoolgirl, born to Pakistani immigrants, who one day suddenly loses her freedom.

She is kidnapped by her father and taken to Pakistan – an alien land and culture for her.
The film is also the personal story of Pakistani-Norwegian filmmaker Haq, who too, was forcibly taken to Pakistan as a teenager and kept there for a one-and-a-half year.
“It is a personal journey for me. It happened to me when I was a teenager,” the director said at the premiere here.

Haq said she dared to follow her own path. “I live the life I wanted. I have a son… we stopped this social control,” she said.

Asked about whether her film portrays Pakistan in a negative light, considering some very unpleasant scenes about family and police in Pakistan, Haq said she never intended to cast anything in a negative light.

“I didn’t think about the negative portrayal of Pakistani culture. I am talking about the subject in this film,” she said.

Neither was she trying to portray Pakistani men in a negative light. She said the father in the film loves her daughter and he wants the very best for her. But he is trapped in a culture.

“He loves his daughter and she loves him….(but) the father is under pressure.”

The director said the aim of her film is to build a bridge between immigrant parents and their children.

Haq, whose first feature “I am Yours” also premiered at TIFF in 2013, said: “I wanted to make this film before “I am Yours”. But I wanted to take time and tell it from the parents’ point of view also.”

Eighteen-year-old actress Maria Mozdhah, who shames her parents in the role of young schoolgirl Nisha in the film, said her character is a very complex one.

Mozdhah, whose parents immigrated from Afghanistan to Norway, said: “Someone with a multicultural background will relate to my character.”

She said her character had found a balance between the two worlds in which she lived.

Interestingly, the Pakistan part of the film was shot in India’s Ajmer and Udaipur. Haq too has a deep Indian connection as her father was born in Rajasthan. Her mother’s family comes from Lucknow.

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