Indie Meme Film Festival Review: Abu

Abu, which means father in Urdu, is what filmmaker Arshad Khan called his own father. In the carefully curated Abu, he uses animation, home movies, iPhone videos, and interviews to tell the story of his father’s life, and his struggle to find a place in it.

Khan’s father was a stoic man who was prideful in his work and when that was stripped away, he became an ardent believer in the Muslim faith. For Khan and his family, the false sense of safety which was easily harnessed in their childhood home quickly dissipates when they move to Canada. In his emerging adolescence, Khan realizes he has brought more baggage from his home country to his new life than he can bear alone. As his father delves deeper into religion, Khan alternatively begins to assimilate into Canadian culture in an effort to find a place to fit in. As the years go by, Khan feels the need to look for similarities between his father and himself.

Abu is an open diary, a heart-wrenching story of life’s love and loss and a young immigrant’s story of identity preservation in the midst of losing everything he grew up knowing. Although vibrant home videos help paint a picture of what is left of Khan’s childhood home in Pakistan, full of life, dancing and love, Khan’s subsequent commentary provides an insightful perspective of the inner turmoil he was dealing with.

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Abu screened at the 2018 Indie Meme Film Festival. For more on Indie Meme, read "From Tibet to the Indian Ocean," April 13.