Review of Rafina

Viewed at the Innsbruck Film Festival, June 2014 ~ The first film of the second festival day, "Good Morning Pakistan", opened an entire new page on the poorly understood and highly maligned nuclear bastion of Islam, Pakistan, and introduces a fantastic new feminine screen presence, 23 year old Model turned actress AMNA ILYAS. We will no doubt be seeing more of her soon! -- Only 77 minute In length but so full of striking events and personalities that it seems twice as long. Director Sabiha Sumar applies Occam's Razor with unerring sharpness to a story that could easily have run three hours~~this is a film which must be seen far more widely! A dazzling discovery from a nation whose films are hardy ever seen outside of their home territory. Sumar Who learned her craft at elite American schools is a one woman wrecking crew trying to reestablish a film industry in her home country that was all but destroyed by the fanatic Islamic regime currently in power. In this startling picture the emerging fashion industry in Pakistan is set against the return to Pakistan and assassination of glamorous former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in 2009 as an English language radio station keeps the public informed with daily morning broadcasts of ongoing events. While basically fiction "good Morning Karachi" has the effect of a documentary revealing what is going on in one of the world's most dangerous countries. Among many other things, needless to say, a Powerful statement in favor of women's liberation in a country where "honor killings" are taken for granted and go unpunished. GMK is a not so distant cousin of the Barry Lewinson 1987 Robin Williams starrer "Good Morning Vietnam" -- equally critical of a corrupt regime but better! With this film alone my trip to the Alpine Paradise of Innsbruck was justified.