Project Kashmir

Australasian Premiere

In the scenic Kashmir Valley, saffron fields carpet the hilltops and shikaras glide along moonlit waters. A disputed territory between India and Pakistan for over 50 years, Kashmir was once called paradise on earth but is now scarred by extremist violence.

Two American filmmakers, friends from opposite sides of the divide (one is Pakistani Muslim and the other Indian Hindu), travel together to Kashmir to find out why their countries have been fighting over this piece of land for over 60 years.

Shot by Academy-Award-winning filmmaker Ross Kauffman “Born into Brothels” and edited by Billy McMillin “Iraq in Fragments”, the breathtaking beauty of Kashmir gives way to constant reminders of conflict: paramilitary troops sporting AK-47s, trucks gutted by roadside bombs and abandoned homes crumbling into the earth.

Geeta and Senain talk with villagers, journalists and human rights activists (though an informant warns them that double-speak is a way of life as well as a survival tactic).

Unsure of whom to trust and what to believe, they find themselves on opposite sides of the divide, their bonds of friendship tested in a realm where one’s identity is questioned at
every.

Can different truths exist side by side?