Pawns of Paradise: Inside the Kashmir Conflict

Flashpoint Kashmir. Could the unthinkable happen tomorrow? Few other territories on Earth pose so much danger to world peace. With nonstop fighting since 1949, it’s the longest ongoing conflict in the world today. India and Pakistan — both nuke-ready heavyweights — lay fierce claim to the territory. Between them over one million soldiers straddle the Line of Control.  But what of the war-scarred Kashmiri inhabitants — the 12 million people who live in one of the most resource-rich environments on earth — dense with alpine forests, massive river systems, fertile valleys and soaring mountains like K2?  This is their story, as told through the eyes of independent filmmaker and video journalist Zoltan Istvan, who traveled alone in the region  to capture the conflict within.

Kashmir means paradise on Earth. But in Istvan’s 6-week filming journey through the war-torn region it was anything but.  Instead the journey revealed a people — Kashmiri Hindus and Muslims — in great despair each trying to build lives in a land beset by 50 years of war and terrorism. A visit to a Kashmiri Pandit refugee camp showed how hundreds of thousands of Hindus went from being the richest people in the region to the poorest, forced from their homes and lands by militant violence. On the other side of the Line of Control, in a poorly supplied civilian hospital in Pakistan’s Muzaffarabad District, Muslim amputees of all ages told  horrible details of being caught in the fighting. In Srinagar, a widow gave solemn testimony about her husband, a shopkeeper who was murdered after being accused of militant activity.

Zoltan captures  all the hidden faces of the proud but crumbling Kashmiri culture that rarely is seen by the outside world or covered by traditional media. His footage also includes exciting adventures through Kashmir’s stunning, world famous landscapes. This includes hitchhiking through the lush Kashmir Valley; trekking through the Himalayas; horse riding near glaciers in Pakistan’s northern tribal areas; house boating on Dal lake; off-roading to Buddhist monasteries in Ladakh where oracles cast out evil spirits; and motorcycling through the militant ridden countryside of Azad Kashmir.

Details

LENGTH: 1 x 54 Minutes
FORMAT: Special
INTERNATIONAL TRACK: Yes
TEXTLESS: Yes
CLOSED CAPTIONS: No
ASPECT RATIO: 4:3
PRODUCTION YEAR: 2006
RELEASE YEAR: 2010
SUPPLIER:  Crescent Horizons, LLC
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United States
RIGHTS TERRITORY: Worldwide

Awards

Official Selection, Vermont International Film Festival, 2006
Official Selection, FAIF International Film Fesitval, Hollywood, CA, 2006
Winner Best Documentary, B-Movie Film Festival, Syracuse, NY, 2006
Official Selection, Reelheart International Film Festival,Toronto, Canada, 2006
Official Selection, Independents’ Film Festival, Tampa, FL, 2006
Official Selection, Charlotte Film Festival Charlotte, North Carolina, 2006
Official Selection, Gloria Film Festival, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2006
Award:  Director, Philadelphia Fiction & Documentary Festival, Philadelphia, PA, 2006
Official Selection, Bollywood & Beyond Film Festival, Stuttgart, Germany, 2006
Official Selection, Virginia Digital, G.U.Y.S. Festival, Northern Virginia, 2006

Biography, Zoltan Istvan

Born in Los Angeles in 1973, Zoltan Istvan began sailing alone around the world at the age of 21. After visiting 70 countries on his sailboat The Way, he pursued journalism. He’s written for the New York Times Syndicate, National Geographic.com, Cruising World, San Francisco Chronicle, Sail and Outside. At 28 he began working with the National Geographic Channel — filming, writing, narrating and producing television news segments and webcasts, and publishing online articles about adventure, science, human rights, wildlife and environmental issues from places such as Vanuatu, Uruguay, Cambodia, Bolivia, Spain, Vietnam, Greece, Brazil and Paraguay.