Paikar means “war” or “warrior”, a name Dawood Hilmandi’s family gave him with pride, but one he has carried more as a burden. Having fled Afghanistan, Iran and eventually his father, the filmmaker returns to face Baba: a former mujahideen fighter turned imam, writer and poet, whose authority and silence shaped the family. Their encounters lead through Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan, and into histories neither has been able to leave behind.
As father and son begin to speak, the hardened public figure slowly gives way to a more fragile man formed by war and violence of his own. Without excusing the harm passed through the family, Paikar searches for its origins. What emerges is both a personal act of resistance and a deeply moving film about questioning those we love, breaking inherited silence and finding the possibility of another life.
Hilmandi films from inside the relationship, placing his doubts, memories and longing before the camera. Intimate conversations sit alongside family archives, restless city images and passages of dreamlike intensity.
The film won IDFA Award for Best First Feature, 2025.
Meet director Dawood Hilmandi for a conversation about his very personal and poetic take on family, memory and life in exile.
