Among the Believers: Cine UNACov
Date/Time
Date(s) - 07/02/2018
4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Location
L4 Warwick Uni
Categories
This film will be shown at 16:00 on 7 February in Lecture Theatre 4, Chemistry Department, University of Warwick as part of the Cine UNACov programme.
Intimate and shocking, “Among the Believers” offers rare insights into the ideological battles shaping Pakistan and the Muslim world. The film has been nominated for an Emmy Award and has received many other nominations, but has been banned in Pakistan.
This film follows the lives of two teenage students who have attended madrassas (Islamic seminaries) run by the Red Mosque network organised by charismatic cleric Abdul Aziz Ghazi. Throughout the film, their paths diverge. Talha, 12, detaches from his moderate Muslim family and decides to become a jihadi preacher. Zarina, also 12, escapes her madrassah and joins a regular school. Over the next few years, Zarina’s education is threatened by frequent Taliban attacks on schools like her own.
Abdul Aziz Ghazi is an ISIS supporter and Taliban ally. He is waging jihad against the Pakistani state. His dream is to impose a strict version of Shariah law throughout the country, as a model for the world. A flashpoint in Aziz’s holy war took place in 2007, when the government leveled his flagship mosque to the ground, killing his mother, brother, only son and 150 students. With unprecedented access, Among the Believers follows Aziz on his very personal quest to create an Islamic utopia, during the bloodiest period in Pakistan’s modern history.
Aziz’s foil is nuclear physicist and leading educational activist Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy. He passionately opposes Aziz through his public appearances, lectures, and the media. Opposition against Aziz came to a head in December, 2014, when Aziz insulted a grieving nation by trying to justify the brutal massacre of 132 school children in Peshawar by the Taliban. The attack ignited a movement to end extremism in Pakistan’s mosques and madrassas. Led by Hoodbhoy and others, Pakistan’s moderate majority focused on Aziz and calls for his arrest.
Website: www.amongthebelieversfilm.com
Awards
Hollywood Film Festival Best Documentary
Tasveer Seattle South Asian Film Festival Audience Choice
Alba Human Rights Film Fest Best Documentary
UNESCO-Fellini Prize International Film Festival of India
IDFA International Documentary Film Festival of Amsterdam Official Selection
Winner CPH:DOX F:ACT Award
Reviews
“Defined by its jaw-dropping access, Hemal Trivedi and Mohammed Ali Naqvi’s sobering new documentary drops viewers into the heart of an organization known as the Red Mosque, a network of madrassas that aims to spread its jihadist ideology by targeting the most vulnerable Pakistanis: lower-class children.” – Time Out New York
“The directors let their subjects speak without overtly passing judgment. And while it is maddening to see the aversion to open-minded education by Mr. Aziz (“‘Progressive thought’ is dying,” he declares, pleased), we also see the stark poverty that leaves others with few choices but to follow him.” NEW YORK TIMES
“By establishing trust with their subjects and persisting in telling this story over several years, Hemal and Mo were able to provide in-depth perspective on what may be causing the rise of radical Islamism, something Americans can’t easily find on nightly newscasts. Despite multiple rejections from funders, and death threats from Taliban supporters, they persevered and created a documentary that all Americans, and hopefully one day Pakistanis – it’s currently banned in Pakistan–need to see.” Tribeca Film Institute
“Despite the hot-button nature of their material, the filmmakers strive to keep their tone even handed…” “The filmmaker captures a man of contradictions.” ~ Steve Dollar, Wall Street Journal
“Having been filmed over the course of five precarious years, Among The Believers follows the infamous Pakistani cleric and ISIS supporter, Abdul Aziz Ghazi, in light of a country on the precipice of acute religiosity and rising sectarian violence.” Forbes
“I found it alarming, but most of all I found I illuminating.” Owen Gleiberman, BBC
Speakers
The panel will include Ambreen Zaman, Professor Shaheen Ali Sardar and Dawood Jan Mazari. It will be chaired by Jennifer Philippa Eggert.
Ambreen Zaman, a founding member of CARE Pakistan. She has been closely involved in the CARE schools, fund raising, and CARE Crafts. She has a Masters Degree in Development Economics from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Boston, USA. She has held a faculty position in the Lahore School of Management Sciences, and has worked as an Assistant Editor in the Frontier Post Lahore, a leading liberal Pakistani newspaper. As a Director at Sefam Pvt Ltd Pakistan, she launched ‘Leisure Club’ as the first international quality children’s brand in the country. Hugely successful, Leisure Club has become the largest clothing brand in Pakistan. Ambreen now lives in London where she is a Trustee at CARE Pakistan, raising awarenesses about CARE’s work and the critical need for a quality, marketable education for Pakistan’s under-resourced children.
Dawood Jan Mazari is the United Nations Youth Ambassador of Pakistan and a graduate in Law from Coventry University.
Professor Shaheen Ali Sardar from Warwick University Law Department is an expert in Islamic law and jurisprudence.
Jennifer Philippa Eggert is an Early Career Fellow – Institute of Advanced Study and an Associate Seminar Tutor – Department of Politics and International Studies at Warwick University.