Poster of Fawad-Sanam-starrer ‘Barzakh’ series released ahead of world premiere

Prior to its world premiere at the Series Mania Festival in France, the creators of Barzakh, starring Fawad Khan and Sanam Saeed, unveiled the show poster in the French city of Lille on Saturday.

Barzakh is helmed by critically acclaimed director Asim Abbasi, who has previously directed Zindagi’s first original Churails and feature film Cake. Gracing the event were writer-director Abbasi, Saeed, and producer Shailja Kejriwal, according to a press release.

Based in Lille since 2018, Series Mania is dedicated uniquely to television series in Europe. The festival offers exclusive world premieres of international series on the big screen, giving its audience eight days of discoveries, parties and masterclasses with some of the most renowned personalities in the series world.

Barzakh is said to be the only series selected for the festival from South Asia.

The series will debut in the showcase’s International Panorama, a 12-title competitive section where it will be eligible for the best series, director, actress, actor, student jury, and audience awards.

A family drama centered around an elderly man’s quest for love, Barzakh explores intergenerational trauma between fathers and sons.

Fawad Khan portrays the role of a single parent. Elated at Barzakh making the Series Mania cut, Fawad said, “Coinciding with our Series Mania premiere, our poster that we now reveal to the world offers an early glimpse into what can be expected from the series - abstract beauty and ambiguity that reflects the complexities in navigating human relationships in a post-modern world.”

Sanam, who plays the other central character, said, “It is simply surreal to be attending the Series Mania Festival. Barzakh is a story that I connected with from the minute I heard it and in Asim Abbasi’s hands, it’s been crafted into a moving, beautiful series that will renew our faith in love and life. It is very different from what we have seen on screen and all the actors have performed extremely different, diverse roles. I am honored that it is having its world premiere at the Series Mania Festival.”

Asim shot this series in Karachi and the picturesque Hunza valley.

Talking about Barzakh and the poster, Asim adds, “Love and memory are both central thematic components of Barzakh. We wanted a visual that represented love in its eternal manifestation, but, which like memory, also had a fleeting, ephemeral quality about – like time slipping by and evaporating around us, leaving behind a distant, but vivid, memory of the moment it all began.”

Barzakh is produced by Waqas Hassan and Shailja Kejriwal.