Paikar by director and screenwriter Dawood Hilmandi has been selected as the Netherlands’ official entry to the 99th Academy Awards in the International Feature Film category.

The Dutch documentary world premiered at IDFA, where it won the Best First Feature Award, FIPRESCI Award and Special Mention Best Dutch Film. At Hot Docs it received the Emerging International Filmmaker Award, and it has been presented at numerous other festivals worldwide including DOKfest Munich and the Guanajuato International Film Festival.

Paikar is produced by Frank Hoeve and Katja Draaijer for BALDR Film (NL) in co-production with EOdocs (NL). Taskovski Films is handling international sales. The film is supported by the Netherlands Film Fund, The Netherlands Production Incentive, and NPO-Fund.

In Paikar, Afghan-Dutch filmmaker Hilmandi revisits his authoritarian father, an imam with a violent past, to reconcile their troubled history. Through journeys across Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq, they explore family, spirituality, and the immigrant experience. Paikar is both a personal quest for liberation and a universal story of overcoming alienation, inspiring others to find freedom and creativity amidst adversity.

The committee selects Paikar “because Dawood Hilmandi's enticing and personal attempt to understand his father tells a universal story about fathers and sons, familiar relations, and the way in which war and migration continue to form generations. Cinematically, Paikar also made a strong impression: the cinematography is mesmerizing and innovative, at times almost claustrophobic. The fact that Hilmandi has received international acclaim for his debut film gives the committee confidence in the film’s international expressiveness.The Netherlands has a long tradition of documentary filmmaking, and the committee is proud that with Paikar a documentary has been selected as the Dutch entry for the Best International Feature Oscar for the first time in over sixty years”

"What started with my own family, became a film about loss and love, war and freedom," states Hilmandi. "To have a story that is deeply rooted in Afghanistan and Iran, now presented globally by the Netherlands, is of enormous value to me. You can leave your country, but your past travels alongside you."

Dawood Hilmandi’s acclaimed video essay Me Montage (2016) opened the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, a testament to his innovative style. This recognition was reinforced when he won the top prize in the Open Door program for a feature film project pitch at the Locarno Film Festival in 2017.

Amongst many, BALDR Film productions include Oscar-nominated documentary Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat, as well as the winner of the Cannes Grand Prix All We Imagine as Light, and most recently Al Baraneya which was selected for Venice Giornata and The Smell of Apples in the Platform section of the Toronto International Film Festival.

Trailer Paikar 

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More information on Paikar

BALDR Film
Frank Hoeve
Ph: + 31 20 303 2670
frank@baldrfilm.nl
www.baldrfilm.nl

Sales: Taskovski Films
Irena Taskovski
Ph: +44 7562 977143
sales@taskovskifilms.com
www.taskovskifilms.com