We Are Faheem and Karun – BFI Flare 2025

Writer: Onir and Fawzia Mirza

Director: Onir

The first Kashmiri language story to play at BFI Flare, Onir’s 75-minute film We are Faheem and Karun co-written with Fawzia Mirza is a gentle bittersweet love story set at a border control unit between the hilly region of Kashmir on the north-Indian border and Pakistan which the characters can see from where they stand. Based on a true story, this classic romance-against-the-odds trope is a positive presentation of LGBTQIA+ relationships but is nonetheless beset by troubles that challenge the characters including not only the community and status divisions between them but the political and religious differences that only increase the physical and emotional distinctions that underpin Onir’s slow-burn movie.

Meeting for the first time at a border crossing when Faheem roars up on his motorbike, there is an instant attraction with officer Karun who must check his destination and search his bag. Encountering one another several more times, a pattern of interactions begins with Faheem leaving an apple for Karun each time, before the pair progress to texting and then in-person meetings. But when Karun ventures into Faheem’s village to surprise him, his obvious outsider status brings trouble for them both.

Onir’s film is ultimately a rather innocent love story and rather shy about the attraction the two leads feel for each other. In this sense, there is a classic Hollywood feel to the approach as coy glances and a tentative intertwining of fingers results in a brief kiss quite far into the film, beyond which Onir’s camera never intrudes. And there is something both wholesome and refreshing about a film that focuses on its characters’ hearts rather than lust and desire, giving the central relationship greater depth as a result and helping the audience to invest in the outcomes once the outside world begins to intrude.

With limited length, however, the film is unable to move beyond a surface knowledge of each man and even towards the end of We Are Faheem and Karun, neither has been clearly drawn, or not sufficiently to exist beyond their meaning to each other. Faheem has a little more substance largely thanks to the family built around him including a very accepting mother who understands her son well, supporting his choices by knowing but never asking him any questions about his sexuality. And it is through Faheem that the audience learn far more about the hatred and community division that dominates the final chunk of the film

The context for Onir is well managed in We Are Faheem and Karun, just enough to be clear about the violence and danger both from street gangs who chase Karun and official military raids that he hears from the bedroom he shares with colleagues, a soundscape of rifle fire and the composition of attack that leave both men afraid and fearing for their secret connection. As Faheem and Karun Mir Tawseef and Akash Menon offer plenty of longing looks and a chemistry that sustains the gentle approach that Onir takes to developing their sweet relationship while offering the range of emotions and complex duties that threaten to come between them. In a slightly longer timeframe, there would have been more room to develop both the characters and the danger a little further, but this Flare debut is certainly promising.

We Are Faheem and Karun is screening at BFI Flare 2025 from 19-30 March.