Word: bilal
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Last April, Fakhra was napping in her mother's home on Napier Rd., the seedy red-light section of Karachi, the country's rough-and-tumble commercial hub. It was a great distance?in every way?from what she had hoped for when she married Bilal Khar, now 36, a former politician and scion of one of Pakistan's best-known families. Five days earlier, after enduring constant physical abuse by her husband during three years of marriage, she had returned home...
...primary source of power and wealth in Pakistan. The Khars rule their area of Punjab province as feudal lords. Mustafa Khar was once dubbed the "Lion of the Punjab" after a massive election victory, and served as the Chief Minister and Governor of the province in the 1970s. Son Bilal treated his new, second wife as a possession, and beat her severely when she displeased him. When she abandoned him, he took his revenge with acid...
...anyone could empathize with Fakhra, it was Durrani. She was the sixth wife of the Lion of the Punjab. She helped raise Bilal Khar, Fakhra's husband, and, at age 36, the younger Khar still refers to her as "Mummy." Durrani detailed her life with the Khars in a 1991 autobiography called My Feudal Lord, and it is a hair-raising tale. The elder Khar beat Durrani, kidnapped their children, had a rip-roaring affair with her youngest sister and once forced Durrani to strip naked when she disobeyed his orders. Domestic abuse is routinely swept under the carpet...
...sight. The obvious solution is to hop on a train to Morocco and start anew. Right. The film starts abruptly, shoving you into their life in Morocco where the girls run wild through the dirt streets and mommy sells handmade dolls. One random day a street performer named Bilal (Taghmaoui) walks--on his hands--into their lives, and quickly becomes a lover to Julia and surrogate father for the two daughters. Hey, it could happen--it's the '60s and we're in Morocco...
Although they are a happy family for a while, the money soon runs out and they are forced to embark on a journey of sorts. In typical hippy style they backpack it to Bilal's hometown, to a lakeside campground, a rich Englishman's house and so on, constantly looking for food and money. Getting separated from first Bilal and then the daughter Bea Keeps the plot moving, and the wonderful shots of Morocco (the film was shot entirely on location) flirt with your eyes...