Donkey in Lahore
Donkey In Lahore is a 2008 documentary by Faramarz Rahber about the life of an Australian who falls in love with a Pakistani woman and decides to marry her. In North America, it premiered in the east coast at the Tribeca film festival and in the west coast at the Dawn Breakers International Film Festival, later winning the Audience Favorite award, Best Documentary and Best Director at the 2009 Noor Iranian Film Festival.
Plot summary
Donkey in Lahore is an observational documentary that follows the quixotic courtship of Brian, an ex-goth puppeteer from Australia, and Amber, the traditional Muslim girl he met and fell in love with during a short trip to Pakistan in 2000. Upon his return to Australia, Brian decides to convert to Islam and return to Pakistan to seek her hand in marriage. Can this unlikely couple survive the challenges they are about to face?
Synopsis
Donkey in Lahore tells the real life tale of Brian, an Australian Goth whose skills as a puppeteer takes him on a journey that transcends borders, religion and love.
While visiting Lahore in Pakistan to perform at a puppet festival, Brian meets Amber, 17. Ten years Brian’s junior, Amber doesn’t seem a likely match for this tear-away Goth. She’s a devout Muslim and still lives at home with her tight-knit family. Yet in a whirlwind two-week romance during which the pair are never alone together, they fall in love.
Over the next two years, Brian and Amber continue their relationship by correspondence. Brian converts to Islam in order to be accepted by Amber's family and so that he can marry her.
Brian’s struggle to marry Amber is fraught as he battles the Australian immigration system, costly trips between the two countries, his own religious conversion, lifestyle changes and last but not least the stern disapproval of Amber’s parents!
What unfolds is a real life Romeo and Juliet tale that spans the globe, a captivating story of love that borders on obsessive. From Brisbane to Lahore, from Christianity to Islam, can these star-cross’d lovers live happily ever after?
Donkey in Lahore is a documentary five years in the making. Filmed in true observational style, award-winning Australian director Faramarz K-Rahber uses his unique access and skills to deliver a powerful film full of intimacy and intrigue. [1]