SINNERS AMONG SAINTS - The Christians of Pakistan

Over twelve years ago, the Catholic Bishop John Joseph of Pakistan, stood outside a courthouse, held a pistol to his neck and shot himself. His suicide was a dramatic protest against the country’s Blasphemy law that carries the maximum punishment of death against the desecration of the Holy Quran and the defamation of the Prophet Muhammad. Abused as a weapon of intolerance, with or without trial, many Christians have paid with their lives.

The Blasphemy law, promulgated by General Zia ul Haq in 1986, is an issue that cannot be openly debated in Pakistan. Even the Bishop’s extraordinary sacrifice died into silence and never registered in the Pakistani national consciousness.

A country of 180 million, Pakistan is 97% Muslim. Christianity only makes up a little over 3 million of its population. Under the shadow of constitutional discrimination, this film looks at the lives of Pakistani Christians, explores their notion of the Pakistani identity, seclusion from the state, the organized force of the Church and their relationship with fellow Muslims who are sometimes friends, and sometimes foes. To tell the story of the Christians of Pakistan, Bishop John’s death is used as a continuing theme and reference.

The film revisits the survivors of Gojra, where in 2009, a Christian village was ransacked and looted and a family of seven, burnt alive. One year on, as Gojra continues to grieve, the film explores how and where Pakistan’s original project of diversity and the creation of a secular democracy went wrong. Its central focus is to discover how the local Christian community has been affected by a state and society that are increasingly falling prey to a new wave of Islamisation in the country.

From American evangelists in Karachi to an Islamic scholar who is constructing a Bishop John Joseph Memorial Hall in his seminary, the film includes interviews with the Christian clergy, human rights activists, community leaders and the young. Its main theme is intercut with the lives and everyday experiences of ordinary Christians living in the country, told through celebrations, religious practices, rituals and music. It uses archive footage, interviews, original music soundtrack, and voiceover narration to discover what it means to be a religious minority in a very religious society.

Duration: 59' 53"
Format: HD 1080i / PAL
Language: English and Urdu/Punjabi with English subtitles
Written by: Aliya Salahuddin
Directed by: Niccolo Piazza
Produced by: Moonweed Digital Productions

Play Clip - (480x270 Quicktime, Dur: 4'00")

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