In this episode of Stream Close Up, Brian speaks with Dutch-Afghan filmmaker Dawood Hilmandi about his award-winning feature documentary debut Paikar.
The film is a deeply personal journey through family, exile, memory, and the inheritance of war. Dawood reflects on his relationship with his father, the emotional strength of his mother, and the silence that can exist inside families shaped by displacement and political violence.
The conversation explores Dawood’s path as a storyteller, the role of poetry in his work, the impact of Afghanistan’s fall to the Taliban, and why making Paikar changed his relationship to carrying a camera.
A thoughtful conversation about documentary filmmaking, family history, and the difficult work of understanding where we come from.