Make It Look Real

Muhammad Sakhi, a photographer and owner of a small photography studio in Pakistan, drags a display case outside of a tiny storefront with a painted sign and photographs covering every inch of its doors and walls. The IDFA (International Documentary Film Festival) laurels reading “IDFA Luminous 2024” appears over the image.  

Text “Atelier Graphoui & Video Power present” and “With the support of SIC – Sound Image Culture” appear over the image as the photographer walks back inside the shop.  

[STRING MUSIC BEGINS TO PLAY]  

Inside the shop, with photographs all over the walls and counters, Sakhi pulls a curtain. A customer appears, and Sakhi motions him over.  

MUHAMMAD SAKHI (Photographer) (in subtitled Urdu): Stand here.  

CUSTOMER 1: Here?  

Sakhi points at a spot and guides the customer over by the shoulders, then buttons the top of the customer’s kurta to prepare for a photo.  

SAKHI: Yes.  

Another client, a mustached man wearing a Sindhi cap sits cross-legged on a platform in front of a tri-color curtain.  

Sakhi walks up to a different client, a bearded man who is staring at the wall of framed photos.  

SAKHI: Choose your design.  

CUSTOMER 2: I want this one.  

Client turns away from the wall with his hand out.  

CUSTOMER 2: Do you have one with a car?  

Sakhi looks around the walls and points to a photo.  

SAKHI: A car? Yes, this one.  

Close-up on two photographs pasted to the front of a wearable snack tray strapped around a person we can only see the torso of. The photograph on the left is a young man wearing a white outfit with a gun holster in a seated pose and the photograph on the right depicts the same young man, whose head appears to be photoshopped onto a body wearing jeans and a leather jacket, holding machine guns. The image of the man is duplicated so that there seem to be two of him, standing on either side of a shiny black car.  

Over the shoulder of Sakhi and a man in a decorated cap, we see a desktop computer screen where Sakhi is editing the man into a photograph beside a woman and in front of a waterfall, zooming in to make adjustments.  

SAKHI: Look at you! Look at you in this photo. Awesome.  

Sakhi sits at a desk holding a camera in front of a wall covered in framed photographs. He then looks up and addresses the camera as he puts the camera down.  

SAKHI: What about your camera?  

Sakhi crouches on the floor and warms a pot of tea on a burner in the corner of the photo studio.  

Sakhi sits at a desk in front of a wall covered in framed photographs.  

SAKHI: Can you take my photo with it?  

DANIEL SHAH (Filmmaker): With this one? But I’m filming you all day long.  

Sakhi looks in a mirror, surrounded by more photographs, and pats his hair down.  

Sakhi sits at a desk in front of a wall covered in framed photographs and glances toward the wall.  

SHAH: What design would you desire?  

SAKHI: I like simple backgrounds. I mean a regular background.  

Cut to a photoshopped image of a man holding a rubab—a lute-like musical instrument—on a bench against a rocky background. The background of the image and accessories on the man’s head begin to change rapidly—sometimes appearing realistic, sometimes bizarre—demonstrating what Sakhi is able to do to his client’s photographs.  

[STRING MUSIC CONTINUES TO PLAY] 

Close-up on framed photographs of an adolescent boy mid-walk while wearing a black jacket, an adolescent boy and girl wearing Pakistan soccer jerseys in front of a Pakistani flag and a man standing in a field of flowers.  

A photo of a woman in a forest wearing a red dress draws focus away from a blurred foreground. 

Close-up on a framed photograph of an adolescent boy standing in front of a red luxury sports car.  

Sakhi sits in front of a wall of framed photographs.  

SAKHI: OK, Danial, let me interview you.  

Sakhi stands and walks toward the camera. Shah gets up and crosses the room to sit in front of the wall of framed photographs.  

SAKHI: Danial, it looks like it’s in focus.  

Close-up on an edited photo of an adolescent boy mid-air karate kicking two men with their fists up on the left and right.  

Close-up on an edited photo of a couple on a bicycle on a runway with an Emirates commercial airplane behind them.  

Sakhi sits in front of the wall of framed photos.  

[STRING MUSIC FADES]  

SAKHI: Do you want black tea?  

SHAH: Yes. Do you?  

Sakhi shouts and gets up from his seat.  

SAKHI: Tea boy!  

Cut to black.  

[FAINT SINGING AND SOUNDS OF A CITY]  

Text “Make It Look Real” appears on screen in bold red text, with the title repeated below in Urdu against the black background.  

Text “A film by Danial Shah/With Muhammad Sakhi” appear on screen below the title.  

Cut to black.