Author name: Julia Fan

“My kids will like me, right?” “Sometimes, sometimes not. But even if they don’t like you, they’re going to love you forever. And they’re going to appreciate everything that you did for them even if they don’t say it out loud.” “Did you say it out loud?” “Not really.” If you had the chance to go back in time and meet the younger version of your parents right before you were born, would you? The science-fiction short film Desi Standard Time Travel explores this concept in a heartwarming and bittersweet narrative. The main protagonist of the film is Imran (played by Adolyn Dar), a Pakistani Canadian who is about to be a first-time father. From the beginning of the film, viewers are introduced to the tense dynamic between Imran and his ill and hospitalized father, Faisal, over a phone call. Imran’s parents immigrated from Pakistan to Canada as young adults before he was born, and Faisal reminds Imran of all the sacrifices they made for him and his future child to have a better life. He tells Imran how he didn’t have someone to guide him on being a father for the first time and that he’s lucky to have that guidance now. “Thank you for the advice. Maybe I’ll actually call you when I want it.” “When do you ever call? One day, you will actually want to call me, and I won’t be around to pick up.” Fast forward, Imran’s first child is born, but Faisal has passed away. Imran feels a great sense of regret for not having the best relationship with his father before he passed, and he wishes he could ask him for advice on being a father. Unexpectedly, Imran receives a phone call stating that Faisal had a time travel policy under his life insurance that expires soon, and he has the chance to go back in time for one evening. Ultimately, Imran accepts the offer and time travels to when his parents first moved to Canada right before he was born, giving him limited time to talk to the younger version of his father who is facing his same fear about fatherhood. As one of the screeners for the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival this year, this short film stood out to me and was able to provoke a strong emotional reaction from me, especially during the first watch. This year’s festival theme is “Reflections”, and this film highlights how the relationships we form within our lifetime can be a source of reflection and growth. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to ask the director of the film, Kashif Pasta, about the inspiration, process, and challenges behind creating this film. Q: Did you have any specific films and other sources of media as inspiration when creating this film? A: “I grew up on a steady diet of British sci-fi and comedy like Doctor Who, where they rarely had the budgets to do something visually extravagant and instead have to rely on the strength of their writing, world-building and performances that brought a sense of reality to the most absurd premises. That kind of grounded feel really stuck with me. When you’re working with limited resources, the concept becomes the star, and you have to make the ideas compelling enough to fill in the gaps. For this film, I wanted to capture that sense of texture, place, and tactility. I drew a lot from Mogul Mowgli by Bassam Tariq, which has a rawness to it, and Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank, which feels incredibly real and filmic. I don’t know if the influences are obvious when you watch the movie, but they definitely fueled me through the process. And then there’s Back to the Future of course, which is baked into the collective consciousness to the point where even if you haven’t seen it (and surprisingly, I hadn’t seen it when I made Desi Standard Time Travel), its influence is everywhere. The concept of using a car as a time machine for example just feels natural to us all, because that film has impacted our culture so much.” Q: What was the biggest challenge in creating this film? A: “One of the biggest challenges was finding the right tonal balance between a grounded drama and a sci-fi adventure. I needed to ensure that the emotional journey and the logic of the sci-fi elements didn’t feel like they were from two different films. The tech needed to support the emotions, and the emotions needed to anchor the tech. I had to explain just enough of how the world worked to satisfy curiosity, but not so much that we ended up bogged down in details and lost sight of the characters and their emotional journeys.” Q: What was the hardest artistic choice you made in the making of this film? A: “If the biggest challenge was the balance between sci-fi and grounded reality, the hardest artistic choices were in finding the balance between comedy and drama. The early cut of the film was so funny that the emotional beats didn’t land at all. We realized it was because our main character was too much of the “funny guy.” He was charming, sure, but if he didn’t take the situation seriously, it was hard for the audience to take him seriously when things got real. Luckily, some useful trauma from directing commercials where you need to have so many variations of the creative ready meant that I had already had our lead actor, Adolyn, take on the incredible challenge of playing scenes in a range of tones on set—from comedic to dead serious. His flexibility allowed us to fine-tune the performance in the edit, adjusting where he should be more charming, more serious, or just flat-out exhausted by everything happening to him. That helped us build an emotional arc feel authentic and earned.” Q: Were there any major differences between what you envisioned the film being like versus the end product? A: “My favorite thing about being a