Sethi's 'Babak' Refugee Drama Debuts at Busan Market — SkimNews
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- "Babak" is Payal Sethi's new drama about an Afghan asylum seeker pushed out of German temporary housing to make room for Ukrainian refugees, with the bond between Babak and an eight-year-old Ukrainian boy named Viktor at the story's center; the project was presented at the Asian Project Market within Busan's Asian Contents & Film Market.
- The screenplay is at treatment stage, with Sethi writing the first draft backed by an Asian Cinema Fund Screenplay Grant awarded in July; the project was earlier developed at the B3 HessenLab and took part in the EFM Fiction Toolbox.
- Sethi was inspired by reports of Afghan refugees being displaced from German shelters for Ukrainians, and by Rabindranath Tagore's "Kabuliwala," as well as her grandfather's experience moving from Lahore to Calcutta at the partition of India and Pakistan, who she describes as "a stoic and intimidating figure, but could also be very tender with his grandchildren."
- Key Film producer Khaled Homsi is seeking international co-producers, sales agents, and equity investors in Busan, calling the project a cross-cultural story that "bridges distinct worlds," while the team applies for German public funding.
- Sethi's prior project "Kurinji" — an Indo-French-German co-production that won the Co-Production Award at the 2024 NFDC Film Bazaar in Goa and is backed by CNC's Aide aux Cinémas du Monde and MFG Baden-Württemberg — is in pre-production with lead actors, crew, and locations locked for a December shoot in Kerala.
Why it matters: The project remains at treatment stage with German public funding applications pending, so partnerships Homsi forges at Busan — co-producers, sales agents, equity investors — are the next concrete step toward principal photography. The film's cross-border premise (Afghan-Ukrainian story, Indo-French-German creative team) is also its commercial pitch to Asian and European buyers.
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