Cinema and the World Affairs/Cinema and Espionage:

Two filmmakers on a crossroads. One of them is interested in cinema – the other one has a drive for cinema and the world affairs… “One man who knocked into several military and intelligence structures – for the sake of one woman he loved.”

Let’s begin, by taking a look back into the 1950s, a period darkened by Joseph McCarthy who tried all the hard balls to control the Hollywood film community and their rights of free union and meetings. It was a war being fought in the United States. A committee of Congress sought to control the creative community through fear and censorship. Many people from Hollywood creative community surrendered to the pressure. A few of them revolted against censorship on the human liberty and free thinking. This phenomenon was shown in the film, Guilty by Suspicion by Irvin Winkler, with Robert De Niro. Robert De Niro portrays a film director who, along with hundreds more in Hollywood and elsewhere, lost their livehood; lost families and friends; and lost their civil liberties gauranteed by the United States Constitution. They were the darkest and most shamful days in American history.

This film appeared in 1991. It contributed a lot to my thought process. Those days I was promoting offbeat American movies, along with Sandy Mandelberger who used to organize American Independents Showcase at various film festivals – Cannes, Berlin, MIFED, San Sebastian, to name a few. Sandy had traveled with me to Pakistan – where we presented a mini film festival, Off-Hollywood Week in Karachi. It was in January 1994. We screened a selection of art house, thought-provacative films including Sarafina, Public Access, One False Move, Praying With Anger, and Gas Food Lodging… A few years later at Cannes-1995, I had a breakfast meeting at Hotel Gray d’Albion with Roy Matalon from MONARCHY ENTREPRISES, a Swiss sales and marketing company that was handling the film, Guilty by Sucpicion – and I was interested in having this film in my film promotion packages. Certain scenes from this movie always sparkled in my mind, and I instantly shared it with Roy Matalon as soon as we started our discussion over the breakfast table, ‘‘Roy, I love the scene where Robert De Niro who, after being thrown out from several film-making jobs because of his socio-political engagement, finally takes a small job in a camera repearing shop. Then here also, the obstacle appears… A secret service, intelligence agent enters the shop and starts asking the shop owner a bunch of questions about his newly-employed man. The shop owner looks confused and intimitated. Robert De Niro looks at the scene and steps forward to the intelligence guy,

‘Hey, you’re asking HIM the questions about me ? You’re asking HIM the questions about me ? Come on, ask ME the question, come on, ask ME the question…’

The man from the intelligence services moves two steps backward, then the third one – and leaves… He could not face the man whose inherent desire for truth and freedom stood out.’’

Ever since, I was fascinated by this scene – where an artist was taking position against the instrument of power… And it kept on reminding and assuring me that once you take a stand against the abuse of power, no matter how persistent it is, eventually it will dissolve! The passage through a variety of ideas became an inspiration and the backbone of my lofty idealism for resistance against oppression.

THE THREE PHASES

This was the first phase, a young man’s passage through the conflict of ideas: I recalled my first conversation with Indian actor, Kumar Gaurav (famous for starring in Love Story.) We did not talk about the box-office hits, not about making millons, not the glamour or fame. Our focus was some other aspects of life’s journey, “Listen, I want that you and I, along with Sanjay Dutt and some other well-known Indian actors join each other and do something for the humanity…” I had said with energy and hope.

Kumar Gaurav (also known as Bunty, his nickname) was moved by the idea and responded with reciprocity. This conversation was taking place back in September 1998 – after making my debut film, Desperate Connections, on the subject of child labour in Pakistan. I made this film in 1997. And now I was in Hollywood, working on my next film – the real-life story of two CIA agents who were shot dead outside the CIA headquarters in Langley by a Pakistani man, Aimal Kansi from the Balochistan region of Pakistan. This project that I initiated and presented it to some American producers during Cannes-1998, was welcomed by two producers. One was Sam Lupowitz from PAN AM Pictures who was at Cannes-1998 with his film, “The Versace Murder” about the world-renowned fashion designer Johnny Versace. The film was produced by Sam Lupowitz and directed by Menahem Golan, starring Franco Nero and Steven Bauer. VARIETY displayed film’s poster on the cover of its CANNES DAILY edition on Monday-May 18. The other producer was George Shamieh from PM Entertainment whose popular TV series, Los Angeles Heat was telecast everyday on French TV M6, at 18:30. So, I was given the green light and invited to travel to Hollywood by the graces of these two men and explore the inspiration for my next film – the real-life story of two CIA agents who were shot dead outside the CIA headquarters… 

This was the 2nd phase, my footsteps into Cinema and Espionage. But at this point, I was just an observer, a story-teller looking out for interesting tales. I didn’t know that one day, I would be a part of the secret games in world affairs, knocking and unfolding behind-the-scene lives of certain high-profil people in the corridors of power. 

Then came the 3rd phase, leading the life of a writer and an undercover secret agent – though I always kept my foremost engagement of a writer and filmmaker on the top of everthing else, searching for burried truths, with a clear-cut and well-defined objective of weaving them into a film, whenever the right time comes by… Primarily, my interest into all these aspects was like some adventure, an altruistic adventure, coming from a thought process and an interest in the experimentation of the diversities of life. It was like going out for a quest in the mountains; hunting in the jungle; camping in the forests – but it was still an adventure! It was more like a sportsman interest in sports, there was no deep-rooted desire or intensity in this phase. Then the unexpected happened, a broken relationship in the triangles of love and passion brought an incredible intensity to this adventurism. All the projects that were once so dear to me came to a standstill. I found myself into an impasse, then into an intensified quest – looking out for someone I cared for more than anything in this world. She was the woman of my life, my life-mate with whom I had spent 14 years in Paris. She left me, while I was working on my film project in Hollywood… But her fate just took her into a web, sequestered her inside a military residential complex in Lahore. Her life’s errors had ruined her life’s outcome.

I came to know this part of her ordeal several years later, down the line. But then I knew it. I could feel it within every moment in my life. That has been my trauma since then! Military and intelligence structures have been under my focus from that point onward… I wanted to undersatand their games! I have chosen to be inside their machine. It was my strategic decision! Not a coincidence.

MY INTERACTION WITH RAW

It was a simple, yet a complex approach, how I contacted RAW – Research and Analysis Wing, the Indian intelligence service… I called RAW’s Chief of European Division, Yogesh Prashad, who was stationed in Paris those days, in the years 2000/2001/2002. I had managed to compile and get hold of some cards that could be of instant interest to the intelligence services of India – a country-in-conflict with Pakistan, though I never support any conflict or adversity between India and Pakistan. I had always considered both countries as MINE! My parents and grand parents came from Jaipur, and moved to Pakistan in 1947. My maternal grand father was the area Police Chief (Darogha Police) in a Jaipur neighbourhood. I was born in Pakistan. But I always believed in the concept of one confederation of India and Pakistan – like the European Union. However, it was obvious that Yogesh Prashad, the man from the RAW would focus only on the aspects of conflicts surrounding the two countries. Here I had to keep a balance between my vision and the vested interest of State’s institution. It was a difficult and tactful task, but I knew, I would manage that.

So my meetings with the RAW European Division’s Chief, Yogesh Prashad started in Paris. He had chosen a nickname for himself, “PIERRE.” Pierre was quite an over-weight, fat man, completely opposit to what is generally shown of an intelligence operative in spy movies… The interesting part was that in this particular scenario, I was the one who got RAW engaged into my tracks, not the other way round. I played aound their interest into the uprising of Urdu-speaking community in Karachi, in the the Sindh province of Pakistan. It was a key interest of India to support any internal or regional uprisings in Pakistan – just like Pakistan’s interest in the growth of any regional autonomy movement in India. On my side, in my mind, heart, and soul, I was against both hardline approaches. I was just fighting for love than for the land or hate… 

TWO FILMMAKERS ON A CROSSROADS

Many long years passed by… At Cannes 2018, I came across Devendra Jadhav, a fast-thinking, sharply focused filmmaker from Mumbai who was making waves and vibes on the European scene… His debut film, And Gandhi Goes Missing opened up various avenues for him… It was selected at Cairo Children Film Festival in 2012. Then it appeared in Competition at Kochi Film Festival in Bangalore in 2013, where Marianne Borgo, a French film critic watched it. She was fascinated by its simplicity and charm. The film got another recognition at Nashik International Film Festival in 2014 – where it received a Jury Prize, Golden Camera Award. It was at Nashik Film Festival where Marianne Borgo (who was a jury member) invited Devendra to participate at the upcoming Festival Vittel in France. And Gandhi Goes Missing was selected and awarded the Gold Medal at Festival Vittel 2014. My meeting with Devendra Jadhav at Cannes-2018 happened to be a melting pot of filmmaking passion and vision for a future world… We were going to embark on a road for building a cinematic and political bridge between two countries-in-conflict – a bridge maybe too far, yet in sight!

Devendra Jadhav in Paris – June 2018

Marianne Borgo and Devendra Jadhav

And Gandhi Goes Missing, a film by Devendra Jadhav

CONTINUED... Next part of the story appearing in June 2023

Aslam Ansari is a documentary filmmaker based in Paris. He is engaged in research and investigation on socio-political issues. He is also engaged in photography. His photographic work is related to current affairs.