Son of Lion: Benjamin Gilmour

Son of a Lion; Warrior Poets. A Pashtun lad challenges his father's authority by refusing the future mapped out for him in an area of the Hindu Kush mountains where weapons are manufactured.

It just happened to be a co-incidence that I met Benjamin Gilmour, a Sydney paramedic by profession and a movie maker by passion.

A friend of mine sent me an email telling me of some one who had visited Pakistan and fell in love with the culture and people of the North West Frontier Province, N.W.F.P. Such was the intensity of his love for Pathans that he decided to make a movie which brushes aside all stereotypes of Pathans and narrates the story of an ordinary village boy who is born into a family of gun manufacturers but wants to give up working as a gun manufacturer and pursue his formal education.

The name of the movie which Mr. Gilmour directed is "Son of a Lion" starring local characters and local actors. The story revolves around a young boy from the town of Darra Adam Khel, whose father is a gun manufacturer by profession. The father of the boy wants his son to follow in the foot steps of his father and also become a gun manufacturer, however, the boy is interested in getting a decent education.

The movie has been shot in Darra Adam Khel during 2005-2006. The Australian Film Council funded the venture and Gilmour, who had never directed a movie, shot all the scenes and authored the script of the movie.

The movie has been featured in many film festivals around the world and a google search reveals more then 25, 300, 000 results. The movie has already won numerous awards in the Australian film festival.

Mr. Gilmour from the obscurity of a Sydney parademic has become an authority on the geo-political affairs of the area and is often invited in numerous radio and TV talk shows to present his views on the on-going conflict in the region.

Benjamin Gilmour: At his Sydney residency

Gilmour is deciding to make more documentaries on Pathans and the contribution of Pathans in the economic development of early 19th and 20th century Australia. Gilmour is interested in making more documentaries which show case the contribution of Pathans in economic success of Australia in the form of Ghan railway line which runs through the rugged, treacherous and dangerous terrain of the Australian outback.