“Film can be a form of activism”

Interview: Luca Rehse-Knauf

Mr Khan, your research at Philipps-Universität Marburg and Freie Universität Berlin includes studying Pakistani cinema after Islamisation of the country. What has changed since then?

Khan: The film industry in Pakistan was producing 300 films a year before the 1970s and screened them in 1,500 cinemas across the country. Ten years on, there were barely 20 to 30 films a year being produced and these were screened in just 300 cinemas. By the 2000s, the equivalent was merely two films and 115 cinemas. The cinemas and film production dwindled.

What caused that?

Khan: Many in Pakistan blame this on the mili­tary and politician Zia-ul-Haq who promoted the Islamisation of Pakistan after the military coup in 1977. Censorship and blasphemy laws made it difficult for creative artists to exercise their craft. Albeit my field research revealed that many filmmakers active during Zia’s time did not really blame him. They rather bemoaned the incompetence of other filmmakers and those who only became involved in the film industry to make money. Other factors include the rise of videotapes and DVDs, and a large black market for pirate videos in Karachi. The influence of Indian Bollywood films was moreover increasing and displacing regional production. It’s not just as simplistic as that.

You aren’t merely a researcher: you’re also a documentary filmmaker. What issues do you explore?

Khan: It began during my undergraduate degree when I made a film concerning Pakistan’s first female mountain climber. I come from a region that alone boasts five of the world’s 8000-metre-high mountains. It’s a paradise for mountaineers, but we didn’t have any female Pakistani climbers until Samina Baig emerged and summitted Mount Everest. It deals with gender equality and female empowerment. I called the film ‘Mountain of Equality’ (Koh-e-Baroba).

I subsequently became increasingly interested in my own culture. I belong to the Ismaili religious minority and the Wakhi ethnic minority. The latter lived on the Asian steppes until their territories were separated in the 20th century by international boundaries. This abruptly resulted in the Wakhi living across four countries: in western China, southern Tajikistan, northern Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. I filmed a documentary about the Wakhi; it deals with their language and culture that are on the verge of disappearing under the imperialist influences of nations which surround them.

What do you hope to achieve through your work?

Khan: I believe that film can be a form of activism, especially in places where repressive regimes are in power. I would love my future filmmaking to generate greater freedom and a more open world. My main concern for now is preservation of the Wakhi heritage, which could dwindle away in the next 20 to 30 years, and I would of course like to finish my PhD. —

Pakistani documentary filmmaker and film studies expert Mehmood Ali Khan studied at the National College of Arts in Lahore and at the Aga Khan University Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations in London. His PhD research at Philipps-Universität Marburg into the politics of cinema in Iran and Pakistan post-Islamisation is supported by the DAAD and the University of Central Asia.