Filmmaker Statement

When my parents were first debating whether to immigrate from Pakistan to Canada, my mother wondered out loud what they could offer this country, and I remember my father saying, “They don’t want us. They want our children.” To me, this film is an isolation metaphor. It's representative of an experience many immigrants have, moving to a foreign land, and the rift it creates between them and their kids. Having grown up here, I feel disconnected from my parents’ culture and I’m haunted by the question of whether I’ll be able to do right by them when the time comes. When a Muslim dies, they're supposed to be buried where their life ended - there's no going back home. We wrap our deceased in a blank white sheet, nothing more separating the body and the soil. Our lead character can’t find one so he settles for the next best thing. In Canada, by law, we can’t even do it this way - a body has to be enclosed in a wooden box. The Lead carries out this ritual himself as a promise, however