Producers Ellen Meiersonne, Atelier Graphoui, Daan Milius & Video Power
“Whatever you like,” Muhammad Sakhi says, as he helps his clients piece together their fantasies. Make it Look Real takes place in a small photography studio in Pakistan, where Sakhi Photoshops his subjects into the background of their choosing: beautiful flowers, a motorcycle, with or without a girl. Many choose scenes with Kalashnikovs—“Taliban style.” Filmmaker Danial Shah turns his camera on Sakhi: “I’ll focus on you now.” As the two interview one another, Sakhi’s interest in Shah’s life in Belgium, expensive camera, and well-paying journalism assignments throws into sharp relief the differences in the images they capture and the lives they live. Sakhi creates two-dimensional dreams as the Hazara genocide intensifies—Photoshop has no filter for this—and becomes more steadfast in his desire to have a different backdrop for his own life. (LK) Preceded by short “Daily Worker.”
