Traditionally, women stay at home, and men go to work. But overall, Pakistan has a patriarchal culture. There is a huge class divide and urban-rural divide. SFK: Can you talk about some specific ways that toxic masculinity is a serious issue in Pakistan?ĪM: Pakistan is a country of 200 million people, so it's hard to speak generally. You don't see these characters in major roles in Pakistani film.
He also works for the Jamali household as a nurse, so he's part of a lower class than their oldest daughter Zareen, who is his love interest.
Romeo is sensitive, intuitive, gentle - a man who can take no for an answer. They will chase the girl and get her at all costs. Male characters here are often loud and brash. He is a 21st century rewrite for how men are represented in cinema and television in the Subcontinent. Movies that have a woman protagonist are almost unheard of in Pakistan in recent years. Then I realized how important it is for men to be allies to women right now. Sarah Fuss Kessler: What did you think of the role the first time you read the screenplay?Īdnan Malik: I actually passed on the role at first, because I thought it wasn't strong enough. I talked with Adnan about toxic masculinity and # MeToo in Pakistan, and about breaking the rules with Cake. Pakistan is a place where a woman was elected prime minister in 1988, and where, in the rural Swat Valley, Malala Yousafzai was shot in 2012 because she advocated for the education of girls. He believes that the subjects we watch on our screens affect our cultures profoundly, and he thought a character like Romeo, who stands shoulder to shoulder with women, could have a positive impact on his country, where beliefs about women's rights vary radically. aware of the exciting trajectory of his career - from directing Pakistani music videos and a documentary, to becoming the face of a fashion campaign, hosting an awards show, and acting in this new breakthrough film.Īdnan says he took the role of Romeo - the Jamali family's soft-spoken, live-in nurse and the eldest daughter's love interest - largely because of the character's dissimilarity to the brash leading men that usually populate Pakistani and Indian films. and Facebook feed have kept his friends in the U.S. Since then, Adnan's intermittent trips to L.A. While visiting Los Angeles just before his return to Pakistan, I remember Adnan rejecting our pleas for him to stay, saying his country needed people like him - and his firm sense of greater purpose struck me. Even though I went to another school then landed on the West Coast, we wound up in the same tight-knit, cross-coastal family of friends. to attend Vassar College back in 1998 and, afterwards, lived in Brooklyn for a couple years. For me, one of the film's stars, Adnan Malik, 39, was that connection. Often (too often), it takes some kind of personal connection to unlock our interest in another country's nuances. The subjects we watch on our screens affect our cultures profoundly. If it was up to me, Cake would be required viewing here in America, where we so rarely hear about Pakistan unless the words nukes or Taliban are nearby. Nonetheless, watching it remains an intimate encounter with first-rate acting, observant cinematography, and a faraway world. In its four-star review, The Guardian called the film "expansive in its attitudes" and at times "quietly revolutionary," while BBC News said it was "likely to set a trend for more diverse storytelling in the country." As Pakistan's submission to the "Best Foreign Language Film" category for this year's Academy Awards, the film did not become a final round contender (no Pakistani entry has yet won the category). Set between the bustle of Karachi and the hush of a family farm, this colorful dramedy follows the tense reunion of the Jamali sisters as they tend to their aging parents, exorcise family secrets, and explore forbidden romances, old and new. The 2018 film Cake - not to be confused with the 2014 Jennifer Aniston vehicle - has been rewarded for breaking all those rules, and in doing so, has also broken through to viewers beyond the Indian subcontinent. Movies produced in Pakistan don't typically feature female protagonists, religious minorities, or sensitive men, and they do not reach international audiences.
0 kommentar(er)
