A young woman who gets into an argument over a drinking glass.  A student who is suspended from his university for calling out its exorbitant fees.  An activist who runs afoul of the government.  All–and many more–are accused of violating Pakistan’s blasphemy laws: some of the strictest on the planet, featuring death as their ultimate punishment.

But the director of “The Accused:  Damned or Devoted?” Mohammed (“Mo”) Ali Naqvi not only tells these individual stories but charts the rise of the cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi and his TLP party who use the furtherance of the blasphemy laws as the signature plank of their political platform.  And while Rizvi claims that he is more interested in “chopping heads” than winning votes, Naqvi’s film asks if the same can be said for Prime Minister Imran Khan and the Pakistani government.

“The Accused” has been nominated for the Emmy Award for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking.  It can be seen on World.

Hidden Gem:

All That Perishes at the Edge of Land

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