Brief
Afghan asylum seeker and Ukrainian boy bond in Busan project ‘Babak’
Payal Sethi's new drama ‘Babak’ explores the clash of Afghan and Ukrainian refugees in Germany, debuting at Busan's Asian Project Market.
By Felo News Desk · Published
Variety reports that Payal Sethi's latest drama, titled “Babak,” follows an Afghan asylum seeker named Babak who is displaced from temporary housing in Germany to make room for Ukrainian refugees, and his growing bond with an eight‑year‑old Ukrainian boy, Viktor, at the Asian Project Market within the Busan International Film Festival’s Asian Contents & Film Market (ACFM).
What happened
Babak is forced out of his shelter as Germany prioritises housing for Ukrainians fleeing the war. While trying to reunite his own family, Babak befriends Viktor, whose father is missing from the front. The narrative tracks Babak’s struggle with tightening bureaucracy and the temptation of illegal routes as he decides how far to go for the people he cares about.
What the report adds
Variety notes that Sethi was inspired after reading reports of Afghan refugees being displaced by incoming Ukrainian arrivals in Germany. She links the story to Rabindranath Tagore’s “Kabuliwala” and her own family history of migration during the 1947 partition. The project is at the treatment stage, backed by an Asian Cinema Fund Screenplay Grant awarded in July, and previously developed at B3 HessenLab and the EFM Fiction Toolbox.
What was said
“I want this film to exist beyond the abstract ways through which we often discuss migration – numbers, policies, nationalities, categories of refugees,” Sethi told Variety. She added, “For me, ‘Babak’ is about what survives displacement: tenderness, dignity, humor, the need to belong, and our capacity to recognize ourselves in someone whose life initially seems very different from our own.”
How it came about
The screenplay’s first draft was written after Sethi read about the German housing squeeze, and the project received a July screenplay grant from the Asian Cinema Fund. Producer Khaled Homsi of Key Film expressed immediate interest in the story’s emotional pull.
Key facts
- ‘Babak’ follows an Afghan asylum seeker displaced by Ukrainian refugees in Germany. (variety.com)
- The drama is part of the Asian Project Market at Busan International Film Festival’s ACFM. (variety.com)
- Payal Sethi received an Asian Cinema Fund Screenplay Grant for the project in July. (variety.com)
- Sethi cites Tagore’s ‘Kabuliwala’ and her family’s partition‑era migration as inspirations. (variety.com)
- Producer Khaled Homsi of Key Film is seeking co‑production partners. (variety.com)
Sources
- [1] variety.com — originally reported as “Afghan Asylum Seeker and Ukrainian Boy Find Common Ground in Busan Asian Project Market Drama ‘Babak’”
