27 August,2023 07:47 AM IST | Mumbai | Upala KBR
A still from the film
It's not every day you find inspiration in people, but writer-director Mihir Lath discovered that with Pulitzer prize-winning photojournalist Danish Siddiqui's life when he documented the Rohingya refugee crisis. So much so that the director made it one of his life's missions to retell the story of the photojournalist who was assassinated in 2021, with his short film Ghuspaith Between Borders.
The short, starring Amit Sadh, is the official selection for the Flickers Rhode Island Film Festival. The story revolves around the protagonist and his family, who are hunted by ethnic cleansing Mujahideen fighters. While navigating through the Indo-Bangladesh border, he finds himself hiding alongside the very group of extremists he feared. "The film sheds light on the hidden complexities of the illegal cattle trade, human trafficking, refugee crisis, and ethnic cleansing," explains Lath, adding that during his research of the "nationwide protests in India, triggered by a controversial bill aimed at curbing perceived infiltrations into the country," he was led to the borders of Bangladesh, where he learnt about the plight of Rohingya refugees who were displaced from their villages in Myanmar due to communal violence and travelled to Bangladesh and other Southeast Asian countries.
"Siddique's powerful photographs documenting the Rohingya refugee crisis in Bangladesh became a source of inspiration for my film. I wanted to honour his legacy through my work," says Lath, who sought help from his family and the Danish Siddique Foundation. Lath, who found his protagonist in Sadh, commended the actor for going over and above to showcase the inner turmoil of the character. "Amit prepped intensely for the role, not just on the body language of photojournalists but even on the psyche [of the character], when faced with extraordinary situations every day. Amit's passion transpired beautifully into the film, and that gave me some nuanced moments."
