The Experience of Shooting Natari

I do not like to make talking about documentary films more important than the issue. Frankly, the process of shooting should not really be anybody’s concern other than talking about the problem at hand. I am still planning to write an article about it for a newspaper so I will try to avoid everything that I want to put in it. Also, I will keep the technical nonsense to the minimum and completely avoid things about the process that boiled my blood and will probably continue to for all time to come. However, some experiences are truly unforgettable and once-in-a-lifetime. Shooting “Natari (2018)” and my trip to the Kharochan Island in the Indus Delta off the mainland coast of Thatta will always remain one.

Meeting Ayoub Sehto and his son Ayaz will remain an experience of a lifetime for me. Perhaps the most authentic, inviting, and hospitable people you would ever meet. The way they opened their hearts and doors to us is simply remarkable. From the time they came to receive us on their fishing boat on the Kharochan bank jetty and serving some of the most unique homemade shrimp dishes you will ever eat to the dramatic farewell, every moment spent with the Sehtos will stay with me for the rest of my life.

“Natari” tells the story of the urgent issue of climate migration, with its idea coming from environmental lawyer and climate activist Sara Hayat, and the impact of climate change on the Indus Delta. She introduced us to Usman Baloch who took us to meet Ayoub Sehto. One of the lines in the trailer of Natari is that life is sinking in the Indus Delta. Living with the Sehtos certainly makes you feel what surrounded by rising waters intruding into your home can actually make you feel like.

Ayoub Sehto’s Residence on Kharo Chan Island

In the film itself, we have tried to convey the ambiance and the feeling of the environment of the Island with as little adulteration as possible. Kharo Chan is a haunting place that stays with you. Unlike any other place you would ever visit, and meeting heart-warming people like Sehtos could not make the contrast any greater. They invited us to their homes without giving it a second thought, though they must be regretting it later. The hospitable Sehtos would skip a meal themselves but will make sure that they feed you with the best fish available. And cooked unlike any other too.

Conveying the environment was paramount to the narrative of the film, which establishes the setting to read the state of mind of the Sehtos. Even though the idea of the film was the focus on climate migration, it is the travel to that dimension where the island exists and its state of mind that eventually became its storytelling idea. But it is important to remind that real humans and real emotions were behind this storytelling effort. The plight of Ayoub and Ayaz Gul, and their family is real and they are still waiting to recover from the devastating damage to their life dealt by rising sea waters and class warfare. They know what it feels like seeing waters rise around you, with nowhere to go.

With the Sehtos: (L to R) Haroon Riaz, the Director, Ayoub Sehto, Asif Ali (Director of Photography),
Ayaz Gul Sehto, Umer Bhatti (Production Manager/Sound Recordist)

I wish more could have been done more to help them out. What I loathe about documentary filmmaking is how the discussions among its screening audiences become about celebrating the spectacle instead of focusing on the subject. Especially in terms of the promotion of the film, if any at all. I think if at the end of any film, the discussion is the work of the documentary filmmaker and not the issue, then right there and then the film is a failure.

This might be true for Natari but I am glad that we were able to tell the story of Sehtos to the world.

Jiye Sindhu. Jiye Sindh.