About the Film

This is the story of Mr Ihsan Khan. An immigrant from a small town in the Northwest Frontier Provinces in Pakistan, Mr Khan was a taxi cab driver in Washington DC for over twenty years. And then, in 2001 he won the lottery, $54 million to be exact. Four years later, he decided to put his money to some good: and so he returned to his hometown in Pakistan and ran for Mayor. And he won. This film tells the story of our lottery-winning Mayor, how he deals with the neverending complaints of corruption, and demands that he personally solve all the problems of his constituents. What is the relation between money and politics in a democracy? That is the underlying question in this film. For some allege Mr. Khan has used his own wealth to gain political power. His defenders say he works for free and has donated more than a million dollars of his own wealth for post-earthquake disaster relief (in this town that was devastated by the enormous 2005 earthquake in Pakistan). And he says his number one aim is to fight corruption. Who is right? Democratic politics, is after all, a very messy business, where everyone has the right to raise their voice and file a complaint, demand, or offer their praise…

About the Director

Petr Lom was born in Prague in 1968 and grew up in Canada. He has a Ph.D. in political philosophy from Harvard, and was an academic for seven years before he decided to become a fulltime filmmaker in 2004. His first two films, Bride Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan (2004) and On a Tightrope (2007) have each been broadcast in more than 20 countries and shown in many festivals around the world.