Release Date – TBC, Cert – TBC, Run-time – 1 hour 46 minutes, Directors – Ilyash Yourish, Shahrokh Bikaran
A Hazara family seek answers as to what led to the mysterious death of their sister and daughter whilst studying in Kabul.
Kamay is a film awash with grief. Pain is spread across the faces of the central family as they continue to mourn the loss of their sister and daughter, Zahra, made worse by a lack of answers as to what led to her death whilst studying in Kabul, far from the small-community home in the mountains. Each family member holds a heavy weight on their shoulders, they express and move with it throughout, the camera unobtrusively observing the toll that grief takes on people.
Journeys to Kabul can be deadly, the Taliban are getting closer to home and there are stories of them stopping cars and beheading those inside on the side of the road. As the film goes on explosions get louder as concerns grow that the family and those around them will have the evacuate their home and have to find safety elsewhere, although danger surrounds them wherever they go. There’s a sense of tension amongst the emotion as mother and father try to get answers in Kabul to limited responses, when there are developments they pack a strong emotional punch as you’re caught in the visible emotions of the whole family.
Additionally, as the camera sits in the car for the days-long journey back and forth into Kabul you feel the danger everyone is in. Not just from the threat of the Taliban, but the terrain and environments that are travelled through, all in the search of solace. They live in hope and determination, the former wavering as the film develops.
Understandably, this is a quiet documentary that puts focus on genuine, unfiltered humans and the tragedy they’re going through. Never feeling obtrusive or forceful what we see feels completely natural and adds to the overall effect on the viewer. All heightened by the slow pacing of the film which allows each moment and feeling to sink in, expressing just a part of the weight we see people carrying on screen, and what’s happening around where they live, too.
An effective portrayal of the toll grief can take, Kamay uses slow pacing to heighten the unfiltered human emotions that are on display throughout in the form of pain, sadness and tension.
Just A Little Bit Random 