The pull between leaving Pakistan and staying rooted there drives “Dancers,” writer-director Eshah Shakeel’s coming-of-age drama about two young people in a Punjab town near Lahore who bond through clandestine dance lessons. The project is part of the Asian Project Market, which runs within the Busan International Film Festival’s Asian Contents & Film Market. Paras wants nothing more than to get out of the country.
Ramza, still working out who she is, faces a marriage that was arranged for her as a child. Around them, construction of a new road is splitting the town between those who welcome change and those who see it as an assault on the way things have always been. Shakeel took up dance and acting in secret because her family forbade both.
Trained in contemporary dance, Shakeel plans to blend that discipline with a Punjabi dance form so the pair can express through movement what they keep hidden in everyday life. The project was developed at Film Independent’s Global Media Makers program, where it was one of 20 scripts chosen from 600 applications. Producer Haris Khan, who co-founded Pakistani outfit Last Shot with Shakeel, says the final draft of the script and the budget of about $443,000 are now locked, and U.K.-based Pink Llama Films has committed financing.
The core crew is in place and the first round of auditions for the two leads is complete. Iram Parveen Bilal, whose credits include “Josh,” “I’ll Meet You There” and “Wakhri,” has come aboard as producer. BBC veteran Waseem Mahmood, co-founder of Pink Llama, serves as executive producer and has been attached since before the Film Independent fellowship.
The crew includes cinematographer Haider Bhatti, sound recordist Ashar Khalid (“In Flames”) and stylist and choreographer Gulshan Majeed (“Joyland”). At Busan, the team seeks investors, co-production and festival partners, and sales agents. Bilal says the financing plan draws on grants and funds, equity and in-kind support, alongside co-producers bringing hard and soft money.
Last Shot, whose previous work includes web series “Dheet Haddi” and short film “Explicit,” both written and directed by Shakeel, centers its slate on stories by and about women. Pakistani films including “Joyland” and “In Flames” have drawn international attention to the country’s independent cinema, and festivals, press, programmers and grant bodies have grown more attentive to the region, Bilal says. They are and always will be inherently risk-averse in their approach,” she adds.
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