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This film portrays the story of the Bene Ephraim, a self-identifying Jewish community in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

Film long abstract

Convinced that HaShem, the God of Israel, called them to return to Jerusalem for the end of days, the group keeps the Shabbat, practices circumcision, and mourns on Yom HaShoah, the Holocaust Remembrance Day. The Judaization of this formerly Christian community emerges from the converging plateaus of Judeophobia and Judeophilia in Pakistan, the transnational outreach of messianic Zionism in Israel, and the agentive capacity of this community’s media practices.

This film is completely anonymized (all names have been changed) to ensure the security of the people participating. It experiments with cinematic ways of conveying intimate life stories without showing the protagonists’ faces.

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Film short abstract

Nationalism 2.0 dives into the worlds of social media users in India and the diaspora in the UK, and how they post, repost, joke, troll and abuse, for the sake of the “nation”. Is social media just a channel or doing more to how feelings and crafts of nationalism have erupted in the digital age?

Film long abstract

India boasts the second largest online user community globally. Its diaspora around the world adds to its expansive scope. Nationalism 2.0 dives into the worlds of social media users in India and the diaspora in the UK, and how they post, repost, joke, troll and abuse, for the sake of the “nation”. Traversing the rhetoric and reflections of five protagonists from the Hindu and Muslim communities and a cascading world of online posts, memes and media that fill up their felt time and rhythm, the film looks at a fractured national imagining and cantankerous social media cultures that undergird it. Is social media just a channel or doing more to how feelings and crafts of nationalism have erupted in the digital age?