SYNOPSIS
Amidst the pandemic, the Baig sisters, Nur and Zainab, navigate a challenging family situation. Their father, Umar, plagued by schizophrenia after the demise of their mother Abida, lives in a hallucinatory world where Abida is still alive. On the anniversary of Abida’s demise, Umar’s condition spirals into panic attack and what follows next is a turn of unfortunate events.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
I still remember it was March of 2020, the panic of COVID 19 had not settled and we were all cooped up during the first lockdown. That is when I came across the headline that put me in a spiral. A 60 year old schizophrenic man was killed by Peel police during a wellness check. This unsettling news grew more disturbing as I read the details. The man was a father, an uncle and a loving human being going through deep emotional and psychological trauma. He needed help but was failed by the system.
This led me to research about the wellness checks in Canada and the trend of recurring violence associated with them. Turns out there is a repetitive trend of violence, police brutality and racism following these distress calls, inflicted by the poorly trained police. The victims in the majority of the cases belong to BIPOC communities. Chantel Moore, Ejaz Chodury, Regis Korchinski, D’Andre Campbell and so many others who have been killed during police wellness checks were all going through mental health crises. It is so tragic that they have been reduced to mere headlines and statistics by the media. There is no widespread acknowledgement of this failure. No justice has been served till date.
As someone who has a family history with schizophrenia and anxiety, having lived with a loved one suffering from mental illness has helped me empathize with the family members of such individuals who have been victims of these systemic failures. Their struggle inspires me and I wish to tell a story from their perspective.