Synopsis for the Film

Director Aslam’s intriguing documentary studies the Badin district in the Sindh province of Pakistan. She calls it a study in contrast- a chronicle of disaster, degradation and paradoxically, development. She presents a city of one of the earliest civilizations with its 400 year old haunted ruins which is also a city with an industrial belt with its massive refineries and factories. Amidst this megabucks oil business also lies the dire poverty of a region where the poor do not even have access to freshwater as water resources have turned increasingly brackish. Even as the Arabian Sea encroaches, salinates and makes the ground fallow, it has been an agrarian land with abundant rice and sugar-cane cultivation. The Badin sugar-cane is of the highest quality with the highest sucrose content but the people of Badin themselves make do with jaggery as they themselves cannot afford the price of sugar. Through interviews with natives and experts and officials, Director Aslam explores the complexities of the land and tries to come up with a viable vision for the course towards the future.

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