This is the strong comment made at the end of Ab Buss, a short film starring Sanam Saeed, depicting the emotional instability sparked by a woman’s recent rape on the Lahore-Sialkot highway. Yet since the tragic attack, more more comments have been made time and again.
Sanam:
short film Directed by Ali Hussain and Mahib Bukhari, the film follows the storey of a woman planning to embark on a long journey with her daughter, arming herself with drastic steps.
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As protesters marched out in protest of the remarks and the act of rape and in defence of the victim, carrying placards filled with hard-hitting messages, there were incessant media debates.
However, often a visual tale will help bring the point home, offering you goosebumps with a storyline that advocates change.
Ab Buss, released on the See Prime channel on YouTube, is a short and easy tale, told in less than 10 minutes and kept together with the help of suspense and some very fine acting.
“It’s a film written really smartly; plain, impactful, with a punchline right at the end,” Sanam says. “That’s the magic of short films; their power lies in dynamically and clearly transmitting a message,” she says, adding that the filming took just half a day.
“Actually, even when a short film is well done, you wish it could be a little longer.”
As an artist, does it also bother her when a project she is proud of is not available to a mainstream audience via TV and can only be viewed on the Internet instead?
Yeah, it’s frustrating because I agree that such programming should be made accessible to mainstream markets, giving a wider viewpoint on what viewers see on their TV screens every day. At the same time, the internet has allowed a wide, international audience to see the film.
How was working on the internet different from that?
“This makes for a higher artistic licence; there is no red tape, no politics, and there is a broader variety of subjects to deal with.”
Does this particular discussion focus on how a woman feels unsafe to travel alone, particularly with Sanam as a woman, ring true?
I still believe there is a sense of vulnerability, but for most women, including myself, taking care has become second nature. I was lucky; I have never been tracked or threatened and I like to drive alone at night, but I will still unintentionally pick a road with more traffic or local police or rangers. If possible, I would take a longer route and I wouldn’t be loitering on the road alone. You’d have convenient access to my car key and house keys.
“Such precautions, she adds, are not limited to Pakistan.” I wouldn’t like to ride the train in the US late at night or go on a late night walk in the UK. Anywhere in the world where they may become victims of predatory behaviour, women feel vulnerable.
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All the more ground for the rhetoric about building a better world for women to be continually moved forward. A short film broadcast on mainstream TV, with solid, crisp narration, could assist with this.
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