Explore the world behind Jamil Dehlavi’s iconic films and his unique journey.

A measure of Jamil Dehlavi’s significance is that the British Film Institute honoured him with a retrospective in 2018. Other retrospectives have been held at the Karachi Film Festival in 2006, Bite the Mango Film Festival in 2007, the Grahamstown Arts Festival in South Africa in 2014, and the Lausanne underground Film and Music Festival in 2021. In addition, he has been awarded a Lifetime Achievement Awards by the London Asian Film Festival Tongues on Fire and the Washington DC South Asian Film Festival.

Mosaic Press is very proud to be the publisher of Jamil Dehlavi’s book, a unique combination of retrospection, personal history, and a book about the film behind the film with chapters written by critics about the filmmaker’s films. This book takes the reader on a rare voyage behind the scenes of a unique filmmaker whose work explores massive themes spanning many cultures. As Jamil says, “Sometimes what occurs behind the scenes is far more interesting than the work itself. It’s very easy to watch a film and dismiss it with a few harsh words without even considering the tremendous effort that has gone into making it”.