In the documentary Paikar, Dutch-Afghan filmmaker Dawood Hilmandi returns to confront his estranged father, a former mujahideen fighter turned imam, writer, and poet, in a poetic and deeply human search for love, forgiveness, and understanding. Paikar moves between Afghanistan, Iran, and the Netherlands, exploring the invisible inheritance of war and silence that shapes generations. Through this intimate father-son encounter, Hilmandi invites us to look beyond politics and history, and to rediscover the tenderness that endures within even the most hardened souls. I was able to have a great conversation with Dawood about his documentary. Here is the conversation:
There was a lot of anticipation for Sick, the new film by screenwriter Kevin Williamson (Scream, I Know What You Do Last Summer) playing the Midnight Madness program. Kevin has been a leading figure shaping the horror genre. The screenplay was also written by Katelyn Crabb. Horror is one of the tenets of the program with wold premieres such as Hostel, Saw and showcasing the French New Extremity wave in the early part of the century. Add to the the anticipation Sick being directed by John Hyams. John's take on the Universal Soldier franchise, especially with Day of Reckoning is absolutely fantastic. A film that drew from numerous film inspirations one of which is Gaspar Noe. I was personally was very much looking forward to Sick, a horror, action hybrid set during the early part of the pandemic.
The film opens with the following facts. April 3, 2020 273, 880 COVID-19 cases reported and rising. 42 states have issued stay at home orders. Nearly 97% of the country is quarantined. Reading this takes one right back to the dread and fear of the unknown. An airborne virus was unleashed on the world and no one really knew what was going to happen. The film opens on empty selves in a grocery store. As someone who was working in a grocery store during the pandemic reaching America these images immediately take right back to all the overwhelming emotions of the time, which as of this writing seems both a long time ago and just yesterday.
A surgical masked customer asks a clerk "Hey do you have any toilet paper in the back?" "What you see is what we got." The customer name is Tyler and he starts getting text messages from some unknown person who wants to party. A woman coughs. Everyone stares at her. Tyler gets a text message saying "Nice Ass" and a picture of him standing in the checkout line. He looks back, everyone is a suspect and anyone could be carrying the virus. The phone rings, he answers, silence. "Fuck you and your stalker bullshit." Instant Scream vibes.
Tyler gets home and wipes down his groceries with wipes. Ah, the early days of the pandemic. The news is playing, Tyler shuts off the tv and a figure clad all in black brandishing a knife appears. This first scene of brutality is exactly what I would expect from John Hyams and his team. Intense, visceral, right in your face action and brutal. Sirens sound outside. Help arriving? More likely someone with Covid being rushed to the hospital.
We then meet Parker (Gideon Adion) and Miri (Bethlehem Million) They are heading to a lake house to ride out the pandemic. We know this and who ever is following Parker on Instagram now knows this. The house is a substantial giant wood (cabin) mansion. The place is pretty sick. "I know how to 2020" Parker. Ding. Ding. They begin to receive text messages from some unknown person. Creepily specific text messages. Blocked. Problem solved.
Nothing like a good drinking game watching pandemic news and taking a shot every time Fauci is mentioned! The doorbell rings. Then banging on the door. Parker arms herself with a knife and heads outside. Mimi masks up. That is what is great in the movie how our collective fears of the global pandemic play into the fear of a serial killer. The ringer of the doorbell is an unexpected "friend" shows up at the lake house. DJ Cole (Dylan Sprayberry)
Like any good serial killer film your protagonists should get high, really high, however in our Covid times one must practice safe social distance single use joint smoking and a good Lysol spray down as you throw down dancing.
I love mise en scene in movies. I believe it is not written or talked enough in interviews with filmmakers. The mise en scene in relation to the intruder and the other characters is great. The use of the phone in the film is also so effective. What's the first thing anyone of us do upon waking these days? Reach for your phone. Oh the horror of not having it charging beside you upon waking. The suspense is highly effective. Which brings me to the classic "what the fuck are these characters doing". Once the film ratchets up the violence there is a lot of WTF with the character decisions. The filmmakers have to be fucking with us, the audience, right? Oh yeah there are.
The movie brings the scream vibes, big time. Not so much in the pop cultural referential way but in the way our protagonists and killer move throughout the movie. The film is a tight, tight sojourn through a night from hell in a pandemic lock down. All in all, it's pretty sick.
Good morning, as I write this, in “normal” years I would be
sitting in my second airport waiting room heading to Toronto. I spent many
years living and surviving in this city.
My first tiff experience was way back in 2002. I was working
nights in a grocery store in the Toronto neighborhood the annex. Tiff always
falls on my birthday, which happens to be this year, tomorrow. My friend Alex
who was the night cashier and a gregarious dude who chatted with everyone who
was buying groceries in the middle of the night was talking to two guys who
happened to work for the film festival. Alex knew I always wanted to attend the
festival but had no idea how. In talking with the guys checking out they said
they would come back with a couple of tickets for us. They did. That first
movie I saw was a big red carpet world premiere movie of hometown film hero
David Cronenberg’s Spider. I remember
Gabriel Byrne walking on the stage in an extremely ill fitting suit and was
wearing tennis shoes. The hypnotic, slow-moving maze like film and me working
nights was a deadly combination. My first tiff movie and I fell asleep. Loudly.
In 2003 I bought a ten-ticket package and took the week off
of work. It was intoxicating. This was also my first time seeing a midnight
madness movie. The movie was Ong-Bak and it was an amazing tiff experience. That midnight screening was was life-changing on so many levels for me. That too is a long and great story, which much like Blanche
DuBois was I being rewarded by, “the kindness of strangers.” You can read about that here.
With Ong-Bak director Prachya Pinkaew (2003)
In 2004 I went crazy and bought a fifty-ticket package. That nearly
killed me so that was a lesson learned. In 2007 my friend and I went and
started shooting the Q&As and uploading them to the very new website,
YouTube. The third film, George Romero’s Diary
of the Dead we were accused of “pirating” the movie, even though the movie
was not even playing. Suffice to say we did not get much footage that night. We
did get enough of zombies on the red carpet and me complaining about the subway
we turned into a music video featuring the Sprites song, George Romero. That video got seen a lot, very quickly.
The Sprites
saw it and loved it and the then midnight madness programmer Colin Geddes also
saw it and dug it and helped my friend and I get more footage as the week went
on. This opened a lot of doors for us. That November we applied for and received
our first media accreditation for the Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival and my
first official interview was with actor Dustin Nguyen and his role in Finishing the Game. In 2008 we received
our first midnight madness badge. I also started contributing to the Midnight
Madness blog doing interviews and videos.
My first Midnight Madness badge
In 2009 a brief introduction prior to the world premiere of Jennifer’s Body would change my life. My
friend and long-time midnight madness attendee Bernadine introduced me to a
woman by the name of Sarah who was living in Indiana and writing her dissertation
about the film festival. Sarah and I would connect once again in 2011 and we
started dating. The following year, we were married. She would also be the camera operator on many red carpet interviews.
With Sarah at the Halloween red carpet (2018)
In 2008 and 2009 I was earnestly doing some red carpet
interviews, by 2010 I was on every single one of them. In turn I became an
unofficial video archivists of the programme. I had a ton of footage, from
every introduction, post-screening Q&A, special events. The George Romero
Canadian citizenship welcome ceremony in Dundas Square comes to mind as well as
all of my interviews. Which as of right now have wound up over fifty different film
releases from around the world. I have been subtitled in German, French,
Spanish and Japanese.
With George A. Romero (2009)
Here we are two years into this world wide pandemic. This is
the second year I will be “attending” tiff online. For this I am grateful and
yet I am also missing the travel, the whirlwind nights, red carpets but most
importantly I am missing all of my friends terribly.
I am embarking on this festival by just waking up and
watching whatever I can with no previous research and seeing what world cinema
is doing this year in the midst of another year dominated by Covid. I am
ambitiously going to see as much as I can and write as much as I can because as
long as I am typing it will alleviate some of the sadness of missing my friends
and the crazy energy of the Toronto International Film Festival. Toronto in
September is my favorite time to be in the city, not least of which is it’s
also my birthday. This year, like last year, I'll be down here in South Texas watching as much cinema as humanly possible!
