The Losing Side, a film on forced religious conversion in Sindh won the award for the Best Human Rights Film at the Cannes World Film Festival on 31 December 2022.
Its director, Jawad Sharif, mentioned that it is based on true occurrences, with four victims of forced conversions sharing their tales.
The film, which was released under the label of Jawad Sharif Films, was submitted for the awards a few months ago and was nominated for the award in mid-December.
Jawad Sharif learned that his film had won the award on the last day of 2022 and announced it on Instagram:
Such good news on the last day of 2022. At the Cannes World Film Festival, our film The Losing Side won the Best Human Rights Film Award
He stated that the film had been intended to document the heritage and culture of minorities and the ways they preserve it.
Minority cultures in Sindh, including Hindus and Christians, endure religious conversions which are sometimes voluntary and sometimes forced, Jawad Sharif said. In many situations, teenage Hindu girls are kidnapped, forcefully converted to Islam, and then married off to a Muslim.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) revealed in its annual report for 2021 that at least 27 instances of forced conversion were reported from Sindh. Most of the victims were either scheduled-caste Hindus or Christians. According to the HRCP, seven of the incidents involved juveniles.
Jawad Sharif concluded that such festivals and other activities are essential to create a “counter-narrative” and a story of resistance.
The film is based upon true events but 27 out of millions of people in Sindh is a quite fraction of a number. I strongly believe that Jawad Sharif is following footprints of Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy. Make a movie on taboo issue and get nominated for Award. Well there must be good things happening in Pakistan as well which needs to be mentioned worldwide.