The promise of home, of his return to his homeland is what keeps Baba alive as he passes days at the Jalozai camp near Peshawar in Pakistan. He and his family were forced to move out of Tirah, their village in one of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, into this camp after the Pakistan army began its campaign against the Taliban. Surrounded by violence, heavy shelling and corpses, many families like his were forced off their land.
They then undertook a twelve hour journey across the mountains and eventually settled down in this camp.
Documentary filmmaker Ammar Aziz and his crew spent time with Baba and his family at Jalozai and made A Walnut Tree , which will be screened on February 25 from 7 p.m. at Everest Talkies, Frazer Town, as part of the Doc@Everest series organised by Vikalp, Bengaluru.
As A Walnut Tree opens, we see Baba, his son, daughter-in-law and their children living in a small tent supplied by the UNHCR.
The kids- a young boy and two little girls, unaffected yet by the anguish of displacement have begun to make the tent and its surroundings their home. It is Baba who reminds them that they will one day return to their real home which is surrounded by their farmland and a beautiful stream. There will be musical fairs and celebration too, he tells them.
Of course, when they ask them when they will return, he has no answer.
Baba used to be a school teacher in Tirah. Education for him is an important weapon against the militants and their summons to young children.
As the film progresses, we see him getting restless to go back to his homeland, one which consumes him gradually. Ammar Aziz’s use of the camera in the film is an aspect that imbues his project with a sense of rare honesty. The film shows us an incredibly real relationship between the camera and Baba’s family. They are aware of the camera’s presence and hence we are too. In a telling sequence where the fourth wall is shattered, Baba asks Inam, his grandson to serve tea to the crew and Inam quietly walks towards the camera and then behind it. He serves tea and then emerges back into the frame. Later in the film, when Baba goes missing, his son asks Ammar why his camera didn’t record Baba’s departure. It is a heart-breaking sequence where a son, desperate to find his father and unable to convince him to not go back to the war ravaged village, asks the camera for help.
The title of the film is inspired by a poem that Baba wrote for his father. The poem is written in memory of a tree that his father planted for them. The walnut tree, still stuck in his homeland, serves as a symbol for the soul of Baba. A Walnut Tree, while it records the personal story of Baba, is at the same time, a universal tale of displacement, an ode to one’s homeland and a searing portrait of contemporary South Asia.
