Haven of Hope
Pakistan
Seemab Gul
Panah Khana is a shelter home for women in Karachi, Pakistan, where the mentally disturbed, homeless, disabled and rejected women coexist under one roof. The film follows three women who have found refuge in Panah Khana, and also volunteer there; an orderly in charge of the shelter’s morgue, a trainee nurse and a gatekeeper. These three women venture out for a day in order to reconcile with their families. But it soon transpires that their families would rather brand them lunatics than give them their rights. Following these fragile and slightly unstable women as they try to break the boundaries imposed on them in a patriarchal and conservative culture, the safe house thus becomes a Haven of Hope, a refuge from a society that has shunned them yet again.