Daily Times

A Pakistani documentary about a Karachi-based bereaved mother’s fight for justice will be the inaugural film of the festival organised by People’s Film Collective in Kolkata. The film was completed during the pandemic. Ten years ago, 260 people died and many were injured when a fire broke out in a cellar workshop in Karachi, where clothes were made for a German chain.

The documentary, ‘Discount Workers’ tracked the struggle of a victim’s mother, with roots in Bengal, to obtain justice for her son and to bring about dignified working conditions for thousands of labourers in factories manufacturing cheap fashion. Pakistani documentary film-maker and poet Ammar Aziz’s film, which is co-directed by Christopher Patz, is among the 38 films to be screened at the physical edition of the festival, to be held at Uttam Mancha from March 31 to April 3. The central character, Saaeda Khatoon, whose parents are from Kolkata, speaks fluently in Bengali. She is “proud” that Bengal will get to watch ‘Discount Workers’. “My fight is not only of a mother of 18-year-old Ejaz Ahmed, but it is of all the 260 mothers who lost their children in that fire. I urge everyone to be brave and fight such injustice,” she said.