The director, Sarmad Khoosat, is (or was) a popular member of one of the country’s most beloved entertainment families; the film itself, Zindagi Tamasha (in English, Circus of Life), has been approved by three different boards of censors and a committee of senators, and it won a big prize at one of Asia’s most important film festivals. But, based on a trailer, a far-right Islamist party has declared the movie blasphemous and incited a vicious campaign against the director (including multiple threats of beheading) that, perhaps not coincidentally, echoes the screenplay’s plot. – The Guardian
