Director Saim Sadiq, whose short film “Darling” premiered at Venice Film Festival 2019, has won the award for best short film.
SYNOPSIS:
SHANI, a sixteen-year-old background dancer at an erotic dance theater in Lahore, is in love with an older transgender woman ALINA. While Alina prepares to audition for the spot of the new headline dancer, Shani struggles to find the right moment to confess his feelings. The film follows this unlikely couple and explores questions of gender, sexuality and identity.
The director, a bis fan of Bollywood cinema, has this to say about his film:
“Darling is loosely based on my feature film in development, Gulaab – both being an exploration of masculinity and femininity set in a highly sexualized erotic dance subculture, an open secret in the otherwise repressive Pakistani society. It is in equal parts a coming-of-age story, a queer celebration, and a love letter to the Bollywood dream.”
The AMP would like to congratulate director Sadiq as well as his cast and crew.
