Since Partition in 1947, tensions between India and Pakistan have been a constant, resulting in numerous border skirmishes and four wars. With the countries still in a stand-off of sorts, their 3,323 kilometre border has just one checkpoint, located at the village of Wagah in the Punjab region. The film Wagah documents a daily joint military practice known as the ‘lowering of the flags’ that takes place at the checkpoint every evening before sunset. This film predates the tragic terrorist attack at the ceremony on 2 November 2014 that killed at least 60 people.
A flamboyant military ritual unites people across the India-Pakistan border
Directors: Supriyo Sen, Najaf Bilgrami
Producers: Fabian Gasmia, Henning Kamm
16 April 2015
videoChildhood and adolescence
A project takes teens from war-torn regions to schools in Canada
25 minutes
videoWar and peace
The extraordinary craft and fascinating symbolism of a pre-Incan ceremonial shield
3 minutes
videoHistory
In Stalin’s home city in Georgia, generations clash over his legacy
20 minutes
videoAgeing and death
Memories of friends and neighbours light the streets of a seaside village in England
11 minutes
videoValues and beliefs
Why a single tree, uprooted in a typhoon, means so much to one man in Hanoi
7 minutes
videoWar and peace
Two Ukrainian boys’ summer unfolds just miles from the frontlines
22 minutes
videoAnthropology
For an Amazonian female shaman, ayahuasca ceremonies are a rite and a business
30 minutes
videoFairness and equality
‘To my old master’ – a freed slave answers the request to return to his old plantation
7 minutes
videoFamily life
One family’s harrowing escape from postwar Vietnam, told in a poignant metaphor
10 minutes