Siege in the Air: A Story of Hope

How terrifying is the act of waiting in modern times? Waiting for the single tick to turn double, for the double tick to turn blue, just to know that your dear one has reached home safely. To be in touch, to talk, to share everything that goes on in life, things that feel so normal elsewhere.

But for many in Kashmir, even this basic privilege was a distant dream.

The right to speak, to communicate, to call your loved ones to know where they are was taken away.

Siege in the Air is a 2022 hybrid documentary by Muntaha Amin that explores what it means to live under a constant state of lockdown and communication blackout in Indian-administered Kashmir, following the abrogation of Article 370. Told through the lens of Kashmiri women, the film paints a deeply intimate portrait of daily life under siege, where time and space are no longer what they used to be.

It follows the lives of different women and how they navigated those testing times. Where letters became the only medium between lovers, books are your close friend, and where a father longed just to hear from his son. Every story is portrayed with a delicate understanding, the kind that only comes from lived experience.

The curtains remain closed. Everything stood still. Kashmir is wrapped in its winters, and in the silence of not being able to talk to your loved ones.

The film speaks to a Kashmir that is frozen in a kind of perpetual winter, where everything is quiet and no one knows about anyone else. The deafening silence of the unknown becomes a character in itself. Some stories are of despair, others of longing, and some of quiet acceptance.

One of the most moving narratives is that of journalist Vikar, who used to travel to Delhi to file his stories. He carried letters and parcels from one home to another, becoming a bridge between disconnected families. His story is not just about journalism, but about humanity in its most compassionate form.

The documentary also uses the image of a bridge, one that seems to never end, symbolising the unending uncertainty in Kashmir. The sense that you’re always waiting to arrive, but never quite do.

And yet, even in this stillness, some found a way to live. Some accepted the "new normal", staying inside, choosing home, and saying simply, “Home is home, no matter what.” 

These quiet moments of endurance, of waiting without answers, speak of an inner strength that Kashmir has carried for decades. A hope not loud, but steady.