On “Madyu’n”: Doing What it Takes to Survive

Doing What it Takes to Survive

On "Madyu'n" directed by Farqalit Gharshin

“Madyu’n” is a Pakistani film that speaks to the structural injustice of Afghani refugees and their children in Pakistan. The film was made in Quetta, a major city in the Pakistan province of Balochistan which neighbors Afghanistan. Languages spoken in the film include Urdu and Hazargi, commonly spoken in Hazara town, which is in the surrounding areas of Quetta and stems from ethnic groups in Afghanistan. The film shows how discrimination on families from lost opportunities dampens hopes, leaving many with unfulfilled potential and a struggle to fulfill responsibilities.

The film tells the story of Qumayyudin, the son of Afghani refugees who is refused a scholarship to study poetry. The needs-based scholarship, as explained to him in his interview, is only available to Pakistani citizens. Despite being raised and growing up in Pakistan, his lineage excludes him from the resources of the land his parents worked in to educate him, landing him this interview. The interviewers ask if he can pay the tuition, which is far outside his budget.

It can be assumed that Qumayyudin chose not to pursue further education as any subject would require fees he would not be able to afford. His life becomes a race between fulfilling his obligations to his wife, his mother, and child and finding work that can help sustain him and his family. Working hard hours through manual labor, he still has to take loans from his boss to pay for his mother’s medicine. By the end (and beginning) of the film, Qumayyudin is stuck in a coal mine with his fellow workers. He pines for his wife and mother who have passed, and his child, whom he couldn’t afford to pay for new shoes. In this moment he seems to blame himself as much as he yearns for the life he could have lived.

The audience experiences his backstory as he sees his life before his eyes. This life that he had, in some ways he made the best of it, lifting his son on his shoulders and running around the field to distract the child from the fact that he cannot afford to replace torn sneakers. In some ways, he let his frustration get to him. When he didn’t pursue the program, he became detached from his fiancee. This moment sticks out to him more than any they had as a married couple, as the next scene we hear of her, we learn she’s passed. But all the shortcomings he sees in himself don’t justify what might be his last moments in a coal mine.

The accident is covered on local news, but it seems there isn’t a significant effort to rescue the coal miners. It appears that once again, Qumayyudin is recognized, but the value remains overlooked. Director Farqalit Gharshin approached the film with a lyrical approach, looking into Qumayyudin’s story and asking the audience to feel compassion for the Afghani refugee community, but a change in views, and as importantly a demand for their rights.