Jamil Dehlavi (
Urdu: جمیل دہلوی) (born 1944) is a London-based independent film director and producer of
Pakistani-
French origin.[1][2][3] Since he became a filmmaker in the 1970s, his work has been widely screened internationally, notable films including Jinnah (1998), about the partition of India and the birth of Pakistan, which won the Grand Prize at the
Festival of the Dhow Countries, Best International Film at the World Film Awards in Indonesia, the Gold Award at Worldfest Flagstaff, Best Foreign Film at
Worldfest Houston, and was nominated for a Golden Pyramid at the
Cairo International Film Festival.[4]
Early life and education
Born in
Calcutta,
West Bengal, to a
French mother and an
Pathan-Indian father who was a diplomat and subsequently travelled extensively between Asia and Europe, Dehlavi is fluent in five languages (English, French, Italian, Spanish and Urdu).[5][2] He studied at
Karachi Grammar School, then at international schools in
Paris and
Rome, before going to
Rugby School and
Oxford University.[2] He graduated with a BA degree in Politics and French Literature and an MA (Hons) in Jurisprudence. He was subsequently called to the Bar at
Lincoln's Inn but never practised, preferring instead to go into the world of cinema.[1] Dehlavi studied film directing at
Columbia University in
New York, where he was awarded an MFA degree.[3]
Career
While studying in New York, Dehlavi trained as an actor with
Stella Adler and made his first feature film, Towers of Silence, which he wrote, produced and directed. It won the Grand Prize at the Festival of the Americas. His next film, The Blood of Hussain (1980), was selected by the Director's Fortnight at the
Cannes Film Festival and won the Grand Prize at the
Taormina Film Festival. All of his subsequent films have also won major awards at film festivals all over the world.
Dehlavi has worked on various projects for the
BBC,
Channel Four, and French television, including Qâf – The Sacred Mountain, which won awards at five environmental film festivals. He worked on Passover, a
passion play shot in
Córdoba and made in collaboration with the celebrated flamenco guitarist
Paco Peña. Dehlavi has also worked in the Radio & Visual Services Division at the
United Nations and as an Associate Professor in the School of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences at
Habib University in
Karachi.[3]
In August 2018, the
BFI Southbank presented a retrospective of his work entitled Between the Sacred and the Profane: The Cinema of Jamil Dehlavi, which was described as "a rare opportunity to examine the contribution of one of the most intriguing and least understood figures of cinema."[2] With screenings of several films held over the weekend of 10–12 August, the event also featured a conversation with Dehlavi.[6][7]