Filmotor Acquires 'Hazara Town' Ahead of IDFA World Premiere

By Elena Vasquez

Filmotor has acquired worldwide sales rights to "Hazara Town," a debut feature documentary by Khadim Dai that will premiere in the International Competition at IDFA, the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam.

The film was shot over six years. Filmotor describes it as a "chronicle of survival, exile and the bond of family." It is the first feature of its kind made in Quetta, Pakistan, according to its producing team.

What is the story behind the film?

Dai's family fled Central Afghanistan in 1998 under Taliban pressure. They settled in a walled enclave in Quetta, home to the Hazara community, which continues to face targeted violence. In 2013, a school bombing there killed 126 people, including Dai's classmates. His family then urged him to leave.

Dai made four failed attempts to reach Australia by boat. After years stranded in Indonesia, he returned to Quetta in 2019 to film his community before, as he puts it, their stories faded.

The documentary records the family's daily life alongside its dispersal across three continents: his parents relocated to Canada, Dai and his niece took refuge in the United States, and remaining relatives settled in Australia.

What did the director say?

"Restrictions on filming kept my camera largely within the home, school and cemetery. I wanted to bear witness to the slow disappearance of my community," Dai said. "Years from now, someone might find this film and come to know them. I cannot bring my classmates back or restore the years of family separation, but I can pass on something of their lives through cinema. That possibility kept me filming."

The producing team called the film "a rare opportunity to encounter the lives, experiences and perspectives of the Hazara people, who remain largely absent from cinema."

Why did Filmotor buy it?

Petar Mitric of Filmotor said the company had tracked the project since its pitch at Sunny Side of the Doc in 2023. "Khadim Dai's deeply personal lens captures raw, human emotion in a way that is both heartbreaking and essential," Mitric said.

The production credits span four countries:

• Producer: Ilyas Yourish for Congoo (Belgium)
• Co-producers: Khadim Dai; Graeme Isaac for Mayfan Films (Australia); Anke Petersen and Lilian Tietjen for Jyoti Film (Germany)

Development support came from the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program with Open Society Foundations, the IDFA Bertha Fund Classic, Asian Cinema Fund, DMZ Industry, where it won a Special Jury Award, Docs Up Fund, Close Up Initiative, InMaat Foundation, Flanders Audiovisual Fund, MOIN Filmförderung Hamburg and Documentary Australia, among others.

What is at stake at IDFA?

"Hazara Town" will compete for two awards: the IDFA Best Film Award and the IDFA Best First Film Award. A first feature, from a city the producers say is "far removed from the world's gaze," now enters one of documentary cinema's most competitive sections. The premiere will be the first test of whether a six-year home-movie chronicle of a besieged community can reach the global audience Filmotor believes it deserves.