Pakistani filmmaker Shehzad Hameed, who has some award winning documentaries to his credit, including Rise and Fall of Mujib that won the Silver Award in the History and Society Category at the New York Festivals 2019, adds yet another feather in his cap.
Caught in the Crossfire, the emotional film, set against the backdrop of a war-torn Afghanistan, took home the ‘Outstanding Achievement’ award at the prestigious Tagore International Film Festival at a glittering ceremony in West Bengal, India.
Hameed won the award for episode one ‘Caught in the Crossfire’ of his two-part documentary series Enemy Within. Caught in the Crossfire details history of the Afghan war and sacrifices of the people. Shehzad speaks to journalists who have been covering the war for years.
The show, Enemy Within is a series filmed from the front line of the war in Afghanistan.
The documentary narrates the lives of 3 ordinary civilians: a journalist, a female street artist and a young Army cadet who are stuck in this never-ending war between the Taliban and the Afghan government. The second part focuses on how we obtained rare access into Taliban badlands, and understand why the Taliban are gaining control of more territory, 18 years since America invaded the country.
The show ‘Enemy Within’ is a series filmed from the front line of the war in Afghanistan
The filmmaker wants to give people the experience of the war, the uncertainty of it, and the paradoxes. It is sort of a meditation on what it is like to be a soldier and how absurd this war is.
The first scene depicts the terror that hovered around the Shia dominated area where a gym was targeted in a bomb attack by ISIS, taking lives of scores of people.
Caught in the Crossfire is a heartwarming and heartbreaking film that looks into the lives of people in a country considered to be one of the worst places in the world to live.
It is a rare win for a film involving Afghans after years of nominations. TIFF is a monthly live screening film festival with an annual live screening mega event in Bolpur.
The monthly live screenings take place at the end of each month at an auditorium of Bolpur. The SUN OF THE EAST AWARDS gala will take place in December 2020 at the most prestigious auditorium of Bolpur. All the monthly winners from a year will be qualifying as nominees and contesting with each other in this process of selection to stand as the final Winner of the Winners.