This winter, however in-season it appears given its concrete presence in the landscape, seems interminable to those experiencing it – generation after generation in this region of the world, Kashmir. A way of indicating the noman’s land in which a population finds itself a hostage of the tensions between India, Pakistan and China. No sign of a thaw here, just the inextricable reality of lives written in a context of arbitrary violence that gnaws away at inner life with the callous precision of the cold. Aamir Bashir’s previous film bore the title Autumn, a way perhaps of warding off the inexorable approach of a winter now turned into a film. But what can be said? In this Winter Within, there is a shift in scale starting from the vital tenacity of Nargis to find her husband, and translating into the filmmaker’s need to give a face to this reality, as well as the difficulty of finding the words that could serve as a balm. JB
European Premiere