Documentary is pleased to debut an exclusive clip from Dawood Hilmandi’s feature documentary Paikar, which had its world premiere at IDFA in 2025, and will screen in competition this week at Hot Docs.
The film follows Hilmandi, an Afghan-born filmmaker raised in the Netherlands in exile, as he returns to reconnect with his estranged father, a former mujahideen fighter who has become an imam, writer, and poet. Filmed between the Netherlands and the Middle East, Hilmandi traces his father’s past through Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan while attempting to understand their relationship and reflecting on his childhood. Hilmandi takes a textured and poetic approach to his subject matter, presenting a lyrical meditation on how trauma manifests itself in his life due to both his own family history and the enduring legacy of conflict in Afghanistan.
Beyond its political and historical context, Paikar presents the story of a son trying to break the barriers of silence that prevent him from truly knowing his father. A silence which, as Hilmandi tells Documentary, is not restricted to his family alone: “It is political too. In Afghanistan and Iran, generations have been raised not to question. Not to doubt. Not to ask why. The systems depend on our silence,” he says. His conversations with his father were what ultimately led to his latest film:
When I finally asked my father about his past, something shifted. Not just between us. Inside me. I realized that breaking the silence at home is the same muscle you need to break the silence in the world. I made Paikar because I needed to understand where my father’s silence came from. But I also made it because I believe that asking “why” is an act of resistance. In countries where women are beaten for showing their hair, where protesters are killed for shouting a name, asking “why” can cost everything.
In this exclusive clip, we see an evocative compilation of footage of Hilmandi, either solo or with friends and loved ones in Amsterdam. In voiceover, Hilmandi discusses his dreams, then contemplates his experience as an Afghan in the Netherlands, addressing his father. Paikar is produced by Frank Hoeve and Katja Draaijer of BALDR Film (The Garden of Earthly Delights, Alpha).
You can watch the clip below:
