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SON OF A LION
Son of a Lion
 A young boy in northd-west Pakistan works with his father testing hand guns. Instead, he wants to go to school and gain an eduction. His father is not so sure. score

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Cast
Niaz Khan Shinwari, Sher Alam Miskeeen ustad, Baktiyar Ahmed Afridi, Fazal Bibi

 Director
Benjamin Gilmour

 Screenwriter
Benjamin Gilmour

 Country
Australia / Pakistan (subtitles)

Rating / Running Time
PG / 92 minutes

Australian Release
August 2008

Official Site
(c) moviereview 2006-2008
ABN 72 775 390 361
 Australian born director Benjamin Gilmour set himself a mighty task. Travelling through Pakistan’s wild North West frontier, he heard the story of a boy who wanted an education rather than help his father test hand guns. Gilmour learned Pashto and, over an eight-month period, developed his script, Son of a Lion.

Sher (Sher Alam MiskeenUstad) lives in a poor region of North Pakistan, home to an industry that manufactures weapons, mostly for Afghanistan. A stern patriarch, he expects his eleven-year-old son Niaz (Niaz Shinwari) to work alongside him and is not tolerant of his desire to go to school. A madrassa (“American’s think they are breeding grounds for terrorists), is out of the question. Niaz’s city-living uncle thinks otherwise, and so begins a process to change Sher’s potentially sympathetic mind.

Son of a Lion is a significant achievement. Filmed on location with non-professional actors, it is a sturdy document of the region and its culture. Insight into day-to-day life and regional politics are reflected through the waking eyes of a sensitive youngster – it’s intriguing, disturbing, certainly enlightening. Not so sure-footed is Gilmour’s handling of narrative. Loose at best, Son of a Lion meanders toward its destination without much sense of purpose. Plotting is choppy, with sudden lurches that are not always driven from within the story. When saddled to leaden camera work and an under whelming transfer to 35mm, Gilmour’s film doesn’t grasp your heart nearly as hard as it should.

None the less, Son of a Lion is a winningly credible feature that explores the conflict of children and gun-culture in Islam, while offering genuinely poignant drama between father and son.

// COLIN FRASER