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The Netherlands’ official Oscar entry for Best International Film and Best Documentary, Paikar, is an intimate and dreamlike exploration of intergenerational trauma, immigration, and the complicated bonds that shape families. The multi-award-winning documentary, which premiered in the Luminous section at IDFA, follows Afghan-Dutch filmmaker Dawood Hilmandi as he revisits his past and his relationship with his father, Baba — a former mujahideen fighter who later became an imam, writer, and poet.
Through deeply personal conversations and remarkable honesty, the film explores identity, exile, and the possibility of healing. VENTS recently spoke with Dawood Hilmandi about making such a personal documentary, how his understanding of his father evolved, and why he believes empathy begins within the family.
[NOTE: This interview was edited slightly for standard grammar reasons. The substance of the interview remains intact.]
Trailer:
VENTS: At what point did you realize your own story could resonate with audiences far beyond your family’s experience? Because it’s not everybody who makes a documentary about their own family.
Dawood Hilmandi: Well, I was not looking at it, you know, while making the film from that perspective that it will reach people from around the globe. I thought maybe this is, first of all, my intention was to keep it as close as possible to myself, very honest and close to myself. Along the way, I realized so many other people from Afghanistan actually had the same, similar experiences.
But then when the film finished and after the screenings, I realized, oh, something very beautiful happened. The reactions that I was receiving from people were from many different countries — not only from Afghanistan or the Middle East, but from Europe, America, Asia, and Africa. So then I realized, OK, that’s beautiful. I kept it close to myself, but actually what happened is that I reached a space that everyone who can see the film can connect with.
VENTS: I think there are most people out there who have an ability to relate to some things that happen in the film, even if they’ve never gone through those exact experiences.
Dawood Hilmandi: Yeah, yeah. Well, at the end, we’re all human. We all have a family. We come from a family, so we have the experience to some degree with our parents or our children. So in that regard, it’s very familiar.
VENTS: How did your understanding of your father — your perception of him— change over the course of making the film?
Dawood Hilmandi: You know, when I left my family a long time ago, for many years I was living with my memory of my family, of my father. So the image that I had was from a long time ago, from the experience of a child, from a time that I was not able to understand many things.
But when I went back and made this film, I had the chance to have conversations, to understand my father better, to realize what happened and why things happened. These understandings allowed me to have a new image of the situation, of my father, of my family, and of the past.
It changed a lot, actually. I discovered so many fun parts of my father. I realized that we’re not so black and white. We’re human. Everyone has good and bad, some traumas or some good experiences from the past. That makes us human. I was able to see my father from a very understanding and human perspective by making this film.
Intergenerational Trauma and Finding Home
VENTS: This film examines some intergenerational trauma. Do you think that a lot of people will be able to understand exactly what your situation was?
Dawood Hilmandi: I think people can connect to it because I don’t know if there is any place in the world that has no experiences at all with trauma. At the moment, I look at what’s going on in the world, and even if you don’t have any traumatic experience personally, you know people who have. From that space, we should be able to connect and understand, or somehow have this conversation while watching or after watching this film.
VENTS: There are different cultures and countries involved in this movie, and, of course, it has a lot to do with identity. You were in Afghanistan, Iran, and elsewhere. How did all these different places shape your experiences as a person and as a filmmaker?
Dawood Hilmandi: For many years I was searching for a place, wandering around with the question, “Where is home?” First I thought the home country I left was not possible. Then the Netherlands, where I was living, I was also missing something.
Making this film in so many countries and going through deep experiences from a fresh perspective allowed me to understand that home is something you should feel inside — in peace and in good connection with your loved ones. Then I also realized that I’m not from one place, but all those places are in me.
VENTS: Sort of like a patchwork or something like that.
Dawood Hilmandi: I feel like I’m a world citizen in a way.
VENTS: Do you think there will be more of that in the future? People who are finally able to freely travel around the globe and have less hardship along the way?
Dawood Hilmandi: I don’t want to give up hope, even though we’re going through dark times. As long as we continue having good conversations and reconnect with love, then I hope there comes a time that we can be more at peace and travel around, finding in a much easier way our own identity.
Fear, Identity, and Poetry
VENTS: Why do you think some people reject the premise of being a global citizen? Do you think they’re afraid of that idea?
Dawood Hilmandi: Yeah, I think it comes from fear. Fear of losing.
VENTS: Like a fear of losing your previous identity?
Dawood Hilmandi: Fear of losing what you have. When you look at the world from a kind perspective, from a love perspective, then it’s much easier to connect with another person, even though you don’t know that person.
But if you already start from a judgmental perspective, then no matter how good that other person can be, you’ve already built a wall between yourself and that person.
VENTS: Your father is many different things, including a poet. What influence has your father’s poetry had on the film and on yourself?
Dawood Hilmandi: The way I look at the world, look at life, and try to understand it to some degree. I remember him from a long time ago when his friends were visiting us. They were reading poetry and the pieces they had written to each other. That was incredible, actually. I envy those moments.
VENTS: It seems to be in stark contrast to how he started off in life. What are your thoughts on that?
Dawood Hilmandi: He came from a traumatized space himself, from a traumatic background, and did not get the chance to learn how to deal with family, with your dear ones, with your children, with your wife. So the events kept happening for him as well.
He did not get the chance to treat those situations in a proper way. He was also traumatized himself, dealing with a lot of pain and suffering. Still, I have respect for this man. In such difficult situations, he still tried to take care of so many children.
Balancing Filmmaker and Son
VENTS: Were there moments where you questioned whether to keep filming? Because this gets into a lot of personal history.
Dawood Hilmandi: Not really. Just sometimes I got carried away with filming, with the camera, to some degree that I almost forgot that I’m also the son of this person. Those kinds of moments made me think, I should put away this camera and do something about this moment.
VENTS: Because a filmmaker is one role, but being a son is another. You’re kind of wearing multiple masks. Has anything changed since the film was completed?
Dawood Hilmandi: The world looks like it’s getting worse and worse, you know, what’s going on in the world. But I feel stronger to deal with it in a better way.
VENTS: After making this deeply personal feature film, do you see yourself continuing to explore themes of family and migration, or will you look at something entirely different?
Dawood Hilmandi: I’m open to doing something entirely different, but what interests me most are issues or topics that are close to myself, things that I’m dealing with. Family topics are definitely important to me and something I give more priority to. But you never know — maybe I will do something completely different.
Family, Conflict, and Self-Reflection
VENTS: You have been in Iran. Has the situation involving the United States, Israel, and Iran impacted your life at all?
Dawood Hilmandi: The way I look at family, I believe family is the first country we are born into, and it also represents society and the world.
In my opinion, the solution to prevent so many traumas is that within the family, you allow each other to be and accept each other’s identity. Do not impose things on each other, even if it’s a gesture of kindness. First of all, it’s important to accept each other and allow everyone to discover their own identity.
This also reflects, somehow, on the situation between Iran, America, and Israel. Why is America always searching for those kinds of similar problems? I don’t know. Why can’t they just leave each other be?
VENTS: That’s a good question…we have to ask ourselves that, and the people in power as well.
Dawood Hilmandi: A country, you know, first of all, the people in that country should find the solution for themselves. If the people from that country don’t come with a solution, it doesn’t necessarily mean another country has permission to start attacking.
VENTS: …United States is the only country to have bombed another country with nuclear weapons. So we’re like the last country on the planet that should be finger wagging at anybody else about it…we’re literally the last place on earth to lecture anybody on nuclear weapons.
Dawood Hilmandi: Yeah. But that’s why I think it’s important to question ourselves first. We should question ourselves. We should question our family.
For example, Iran should question themselves. America should question themselves. Israel should question themselves. If everyone starts questioning their own issues and problems, maybe we come to a solution much faster than by interfering in each other’s business.
