Keswick Film Festival

Synopsis

Independent's critic Geoffrey Macnab writes "British-Pakistani director Sarmad Masud's impressive debut feature is a surprising affair: a drama set in rural Pakistan and based on a true story but that plays like a feminist version of Howard Hawks' 'Rio Bravo'". In our perpetual hunt to bring you something different, how could we resist that?

"Nazo Dharejo, now legendary as 'the toughest woman in Sindh', was 18 in the early 1990s when her uncle launched a violent challenge to the ownership of her family's farm; land disputes are apparently ubiquitous in Pakistan, and certainly mere women could not be tolerated to occupy valuable land that should 'rightfully' belong to a man" - MaryAnn Johanson, Flickfilosopher.

The corrupt local law enforcement officers are unwilling to help, and having no money of their own to pay for support, Nazo, with her mother Waderi and her younger sister Saeda are left with two options - fight or flight. They chose to fight, taking on her uncle and his large band of mercenary soldiers. The result, as MaryAnn Johanson concludes, is "Tense, gripping, rife with tragedy but ultimately cheerworthy, 'My Pure Land' offers a gorgeous balance of action and drama in a setting that it both familiar and foreign, with a heroine I won't soon forget. And its feminism is an all-inclusive one that actively invites men to be allies. Yes, all men. Because you’ll only get left behind if you don't join us". Wait for us - we're coming!