Moving family dramedy jumps between Pakistan and Canada
There are films playing at SXSW that will take you to more fantastical places, but the 1960s Pakistan depicted in writer-directorKarachi, 1969, marks one of three distinct eras and environs this moving dramedy jumps between.
It’s not Azra’s first trip to the motherland, but she gawks at the sights with the delighting eye of a tourist, the audience’s proxy. Here in Pakistan, the film cleverly swipes from one picture-postcard tableau to the next with the throwback sound of a carousel projector advancing slides, in the process sliding the film back to 1969, back when mom Mariam – also played by Kaur – was a total babe first meeting and then marrying Azra’s father, Hassan .
This stretch of the film is an absolute joy – in no small part due to the contributions of the creative team animating this bygone era, including production designer Michael Pierson and costume designers Faiz Rohani, Fizza Ejaz, and Venk Modur – but also because Malik has cast her tale to perfection twice-over with Kaur.
It would have been implausible to cast Kaur to play 12-year-old Azra, too . You feel her absence in this third timeline, set in 1989 Nova Scotia as preteen Azra is starting to explore her sexuality. The film is, plainly, not as fun here – it’s not supposed to be. Still, Mirza and Ayani Manji, cast as young Azra, effectively seed the coming fracture with Mariam and Azra’s tilt toward rebelliousness.
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