Here Lies Makhfi

2025 · 68 min

Documentary

not streaming

Here Lies Makhfi is a portrait of the 17th century Indian princess Zeb-un-nissa who wrote Persian poetry under the nom de plume Makhfi (the hidden one). Daughter of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, Zeb-un-nissa is an enigmatic figure in Indian history and her poetry is our only window into her life. The film positions Zeb-un-nissa's poetic expression within the contemporary zeitgeist of neglect and selective amnesia, tracing her work through three people – an actress recounting the memory of playing Zeb-un-nissa, a young Iranian woman reading her poetry for the first time, and a government official attempting to locate her now-lost grave. And thus, it is in rummaging in neglected buildings, abandoned homes and decaying manuscripts that we discover the remains of an unrecorded history.

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