A decade after surviving a deadly school bombing a Hazara filmmaker explores his trauma, blending personal family moments with the broader narrative of persecution and migration. Filmed in Quetta, Pakistan, the film is a meditation on loss, resilience, and the passage of time.
This film is a testament to the never-ending cycle of violence, loss, survival, the dilemma of leaving or staying, and the celebration of love and life amidst ongoing adversity. These locations and characters form the symphony of Hazara Town—a long poem and a testimony of survivors navigating life during an ongoing slow genocide.
Khadim Dai is a Hazara filmmaker from Afghanistan, currently living in Los Angeles, CA having completed his BFA in Film and Video at the California Institute of the Arts. His family fled to Quetta, Pakistan when he was two years old to escape Taliban persecution of the Hazara people. He lived most of his life as a refugee in Pakistan, and after surviving the bombing of his school in 2013 where 126 friends and classmates were killed, he fled on his own to Indonesia from where he tried in vain to reach Australia and join his brother. There he lived as a refugee for three years and started documenting his experience. Khadim has been making documentary films since 2014, including his work as a cinematographer and co-producer for The Staging Post in collaboration with Australian director Jolyon Hoff and as a cinematographer for Chasing Asylum directed by Eva Orner. His films have been shown at the Van Abbe Museum, Ian Potter Museum of Art, QUT Art Museum, and at the REDCAT.