CAIRO – 18 September 2017: Pakistani-Norwegian director Iram Haq’s latest film, “What Will People Say” (Hva vil folk si), is a harrowing tale of father-daughter relations and cultural pressure, based on a real incident in Haq’s life.
The film follows a Pakistani schoolgirl, Nisha, living in Norway, enjoying all the benefits of a first-world life in Europe and a chance for a higher education. However, this is all cruelly stripped from her when Nisha is taken away by her father to Pakistan, after facing pressures back home. Haq derived this story from a real event that occurred when she was 14, where her father took her to Pakistan for a full year.
Speaking to UAE-based newspaper the National, Haq says that although the incident was deeply scarring, she was able to move on and forgive her father, who admitted to deeply regretting the incident before his death. Now a parent herself, Haq has a more balanced and reasonable understanding of the events that occurred, and hopes that this film is eye-opening for both sides.
“I used the knowledge I have to tell a story so we can build bridges and open up a dialogue; because I don’t believe in making good guy-bad guy and we’re done. That creates a bigger gap,” she said in an interview with the National.
The film itself does not portray Pakistan as a bad place in itself, but rather seeks to shed led on the cruel treatment of young girls within Pakistani families, highlighting how honor culture has lead to senseless violence against women and even homicide.
“It’s happening in so many places in the world,” she tells the National. “We cannot lose any more girls. We cannot have more social control. We need a change.”
“What Will People Say” was released on September 9 at the Toronto International Film Festival.
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