If nothing else, Musa Syeed’s Valley of Saints can at least lay claim to being that rare love story that’s able to make an instructional for compost toilet construction seem like the most romantic gesture in the world. It’s just one distinctive element of many that sets this brief-encounter tale worlds apart from others, and makes it a uniquely Kashmirian experience. Essentially a paean to Dal Lake (“the jewel in the crown of Kashmir”) and its vibrant community, the film’s narrative takes place during the region’s political unrest of 2010, a violent backdrop that nevertheless doesn’t dampen its tremendous warmth and gentle charms.
Syeed, a documentarian making his feature debut, has achieved a beguiling, effortless blend of fact and fiction, populating the film mostly with non-professional actors and giving it the appearance of unscripted drama. The plot circles around Gulzar, a boatman who spends most of his time hanging with his buddy Afzal, who hopes to scrape enough cash together to leave Dal Lake. When a week-long military curfew thwarts their plans, Gulzar is tasked with assisting Asifa, an attractive ecologist from abroad who’s researching the lake. A delicate, subtle bond forms between the two, but also threatens to undo Gulzar’s friendship with Afzal.
Valley of Saints comes with a clear environmental stance, but Syeed doesn’t labour the message, and instead grants us a visually captivating tour of what makes Dal Lake such a special landscape. Yoni Brook’s cinematography is lush, lyrical, finding gleaming textures in both the tranquil lily-covered surfaces of the lake to the plastic pollutants clogging up the waterways.
‘Valley of Saints’ Movie Times
