03/05/2024 - The Spanish filmmakers show the work of a woman who is able to fight against societal obstacles and avoid the discrimination afflicting the hard of hearing in her native Pakistan

Directors Marta Gómez (left) and Paula Iglesias

Flying Hands [+see also:
interview: Paula Iglesias, Marta Gómez
film profile] is the title of the documentary shot in Pakistan by Spanish filmmakers Paula Iglesias and Marta Gómez (both of whom previously helmed Norte salvaje and the short film Hondarrak). This story, about female survival and the struggle against the discrimination suffered by people with disabilities in Pakistan, has been premiered at the 31st edition of the Canadian festival Hot Docs.

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Cineuropa: Filming in Pakistan must have been quite an adventure…
Marta Gómez: Yes, because in documentary, there are always surprises and unforeseen circumstances that crop up and that you have to negotiate somehow, so we had to plan meticulously so that everything would go as smoothly as possible during the month we were going to spend shooting there. The pre-production was carried out in Spain beforehand, and we did a lot of location scouting remotely, but when you arrive in that country, you come across things that you have never seen before, people you speak face to face with… So it was a very intense month of filming.

Finding yourself confronted with that reality on the ground… Did it prompt any unexpected changes with regard to the documentary?
Paula Iglesias: We had various meetings beforehand with the protagonist, Aniqa Bano, via video calls, where we gradually got to know her and her story. From those beginnings of forging that bond of trust, she shared with us the diaries she had written, where you can see reflections of the key moments in her life. Using that, we jotted down the initial ideas for a screenplay. We usually work by suggesting “fictionalised” sequences to the main character, and then we check to what extent they see themselves reflected in that proposition, and we exchange ideas. So, that’s how we arrived in Pakistan, but we were trying to see what’s going on there at the moment for a person who is hard of hearing, or to see if they are still encountering the same problems that Aniqa had to face in the past. That was impossible for us to predict.

Flying Hands is surprising both in its visual beauty and in the way it approaches the sound, enabling the viewer to experience for themselves the way a deaf person hears.
MG: The affection, work and love that’s behind the sound design is plain to see. During the process of developing the project, a phrase cropped up that we started using, describing Aniqa as “a woman who knew how to listen to the silence”. We always bore that strongly in mind, because what does silence sound like? We wanted it to sound neither strange nor experimental, and so we investigated what the sound that resonates in the brain of a deaf person was like, or what type of interference it undergoes. It might be surprising the first time you hear these sounds, but as time goes on, you forget about it and focus on what is happening: these people don’t stop communicating or playing just because they can’t hear properly.

PI: The sound recordist, who was from Islamabad, was our ears during the shoot, not only because we didn’t understand the language, but also because he served as our cultural translator. He helped us understand the situations, explained the codes of conduct and broke down what was going on beyond the verbal language. And even though we are not cinematographers, we were still brave enough to pick up the camera.

Was it easy to enter the world of these people and their private lives?
MG: I have thought back and reached the conclusion that they were waiting for us, because of how quickly and readily they welcomed us into their homes, their school, their family, their work… They opened up all of the strata of their lives – both personal and professional – to us, I suppose because of the trust we had built up before going there. We didn’t have to do anything extra, and nor were there any tense or difficult moments, as they trusted in us from the get-go. I’m becoming aware of that, looking back. We were respectful, and we didn’t want to invade their privacy. We didn’t use an interview format; we used wide shots, and we didn’t want to be a part, let alone protagonists, of the actions that were unfolding there. The fact that the camera was not passing judgement helped the families feel at ease.

Lastly, how would you say you are appealing for universal empathy with this film, which shows a local struggle in a country far away from our own?
MG: Besides what separates us – different cultures and languages – when we tackle a project, we need to find a strong personal connection with it. In Flying Hands, we talk about people with functional diversity and how to approach their education. That is something universal. Because… what is happening in terms of the integration of such people all over the world? This is a test we still haven’t passed. If we have been able to show that a girl, regardless of the disability she was born with, has the same right to lead as decent a life as any other, then that represents a triumph!

(Translated from Spanish)