Wherever we live in this world, or wherever we have been, seldom few of us can share our experiences of being a thirteen year-old girl on her period at a refugee camp in Afghanistan. Not only yet another corner of the planet under-represented or given coverage to, short film Ghazaal portrays a snippet of humanity just as essential – if not more so – than most of the content of feature films these days. That’s not a dig at the industry as a whole, much more a warm, welcome embrace to the kind of story-telling that opens your eyes – whether they well up or smile.
Indian filmmaker, Ragini Bhasin, who won the Maya Deren Short Film Innovation Prize a few years back at our festival, is passionate and dedicated when it comes to integral chapters of cache culture being captured on film. And it definitely shows here with Ghazaal, shot on location and lovingly directed, this invites us to share a tiny piece of the planet with a huge heart.