The 15th annual International South Asian Film Festival (iSAFF) gets underway in Surrey today (September 24). Most of the films are shorts, but there will also seven features screened between September 24 and 28, reflecting a wide range of experiences and stories from India, Pakistan, and diasporic communities.
For example, Edmonton-born director Akash Sherman’s Singhs in the Ring focuses on Calgary Stampede Wrestling legend and Punjabi immigrant Gama Singh (a.k.a. The Great Gama) and his son Raj. It includes appearances by WWE stalwarts Bret Hart, Chelsea Green, and Jinder Mahal. The documentary will be screened at 2 p.m. on Sunday (September 28) at Landmark Cinemas Guildford Theatre 11.
Another Canadian feature at iSAFF is Have You Heard Judi Singh?, which was directed by Vancouver filmmaker Baljit Sangra and produced by another Vancouverite, Brishkay Ahmed. It premiered earlier this year at the DOXA Documentary Film Festival and tells the story of an Edmonton singer who disappeared from the music scene after wowing jazz fans from the 1960s to the 1980s. Singh’s father was a Punjabi immigrant and her mother was a Black immigrant from Mississippi. It’s rich musically, with more than 30 of her songs popping up over the course of the film.
Have You Heard Judi Singh? will be screened at 3 p.m. on Saturday (September 27) at Landmark Cinemas Guildford Theatre 11.
iSAFF screens first Kashmiri-language queer romance
The festival will also screen Annapurna Sriran’s Fucktoys in which a young woman raises $1,000 for psychics to try to break a curse. The Nashville-raised Sriram plays a dominatrix in this post-apocalyptic comedy-drama highlighting a growing gap between rich and poor. It won a Special Jury Award in the Narrative Feature category for multi-hyphenate at SXSW. Fucktoys also captured the Best Debut Film Audience Award at the Boston Underground Film Festival. It will be screened in Theatre 11 at Landmark Cinemas Guildford at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday (September 28).
Every year, iSAFF screens films from India. One of the Indian features is the comedy-drama Pinch, which stars Badri Chavan, Janhavi Marathe, and Rajiv Nema. Directed by Uttera Singh, it’s about a travel blogger who incites a mob in western India during Navrati. Pinch was nominated for Best Film by an Emerging Director at the Munich Film Festival and Best International Narrative Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival. It will be shown at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday (September 25) in Theatre 11 of Landmark Cinemas Guildford Theatre.
A second Indian feature film is We Are Faheem & Karun, directed by Onir and co-written by Onir and Canadian filmmaker Fawzia Mirza (The Queen of My Dreams). It’s about a forbidden romance between a security guard from South India and a Kashmiri man who at a check point in Gurez, a remote village in the northern region. According to the synopsis, one man can’t be open about being gay because homosexuality is taboo under his religion; the other must remain closeted because of his job.
According to the producers, it’s the first Kashmiri-language queer film. We Are Faheem & Karun will be screened at 3 p.m. on Friday (September 26) in Landmark Cinemas Guildford Theatre 11.
Ghost School offers Urdu coming-of-age story
Yet another Indian feature is Humans in the Loop, written and directed by Aranya Sahay. This 2024 drama focuses on a single Adivasi mother from the Oraon tribe who reconnects with her roots while training AI systems. Meanwhile, her pre-teen son must adjust to having to move outside of the city. Humans in the Loop will be at Landmark Cinemas Guildford Theatre 12 at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday (September 27).
The final feature-length film, Ghost School, is a Pakistani-German-Saudi Arabian coproduction that premiered at the recent Toronto International Film Festival. Seemab Gul’s Urdu-level coming-of-age drama deals with a 10-year-old girl (Nazualiya Arsalan) who tries to get to the bottom of rumours in her village about her teacher.
Ghost School will be screened at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday (September 28) at Landmark Cinemas Guildford Theatre 12.
The International South Asian Film Festival is in Surrey from September 24 to 28. For information on screenings, visit the website. Follow Pancouver on X @PancouverMedia and Bluesky @pancouver.bsky.social. Pancouver is also on Instagram @PancouverMedia.
