Zero Bridge

Colour, HD CAM
India, USA, 2008, 96 min
Section: Another View

Synopsis

Seventeen-year-old Dilawar, who has left his adoptive mother, lives with Uncle Alim on the outskirts of Kashmir’s Srinagar City. He has dropped out of school to work for his uncle, but he dreams of leaving to join his mother in Delhi. In the meantime, he makes a little extra money doing homework for wealthy former schoolmates, and occasionally pickpocketing. One day, chance brings him together with one of his victims: a young woman named Bani, who has just returned from studying in the USA. Both long for a better life, rejecting the idea of mere survival. The mutual desire for a better future becomes the basis of their curious relationship. In his feature debut, Tariq Tapa opted to show the real face of Kashmir. In contrast to Western documentaries or Bollywood films, Tapa’s work focuses on the lives of simple people, their desires and fears. Thanks to the casting of non-actors and the near documentary visual style, the director achieved maximum authenticity.

About the director

Tariq Tapa was born in New York of Kashmiri Muslim and American Jewish descent. He received his BA in English from Rice University in Houston, then in 2004 he began studies in direction at the California Institute of the Arts, where he shot several shorts. One of these, Custody (2005), was nominated for a 2006 Student Academy Award, and was subsequently screened at New York’s Museum of Modern Art and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. In 2006, he received a Fulbright scholarship to shoot his graduation film, the debut feature Zero Bridge, which was presented at the 2008 Venice IFF.