Dokumentarfilm über Physiknobelpreisträger
Normalerweise wäre das kaum der Rede wert, in Pakistan rührt dies jedoch an ein Tabuthema. Der erste und einzige Nobelpreisträger des Landes, und der erste aus der islamischen Welt, der teilchephysiker Abdus Salam (1926 – 1996) gehörte nämlich, der Ahmadiyya-Gemeinschaft an, die das pakistanische Parlament 1974 zu Ungläubigen erklärt hat, weil sich sich ihr Gründer Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (gest. 1908) zum Propheten ausgerufen hatte. Zakir Thaver, ein junger pakistanischer Dokumentarfilmer, möchte das Leben Abdus Salams jetzt durch einen Dokumentarfilm einer breiteren Öffentlichkeit zugänglich zu machen. Allein es fehlt an Geld:
–––We decided not to bother contacting our own government institutions such as the Ministry of Science and Technology. One very good example of what not to do was the Jinnah project, which was a complete disaster. And part of why I think it was a disaster was that they had taken money from the government.
The other reason we didn’t seek official support was that Salam was an Ahmedi and I don’t think the government would have ever bothered [supporting us]. The word Muslim has been whitened out from Salam’s epitaph, so why would the government bother funding our project? The government feels ashamed about celebrating Salam.
[...]
It is supremely unfortunate how science is perceived here in Pakistan. Science unfortunately has been deemed a Western enterprise, even though, Salam himself had said that science is a shared heritage of all mankind. The sad truth is that Pakistan has lost out on failing to capitalize on its wealth; on people like Salam.