Jaleel tells the filmmakers that Kashmir is a story of selective truth. He makes it clear that he is a Kashmiri Muslim and a journalist who believes in telling all sides of the story. But he also wants the filmmakers to see the truth for themselves. Jaleel then becomes the person who navigates the filmmakers through the confusing layers of life in Srinagar and beyond.
Tikoo takes the filmmakers to the Pandit camps near Jammu. Later, in a heart-wrenching scene, she revisits the location of her family's home in Anantnag, where former neighbours invite her in for tea, as well as abandoned Pandit homes in the Habba Kadal part of Srinagar.
Parvez takes the filmmakers on another journey, to small villages where the men have been taken away for questioning and have not returned, as he documents those who are missing.
And in a terrifying scene, the filmmakers are taken captive by the armed forces, before they are released with a stern warning. Parvez would like to live free of the daily check points, and perhaps even see freedom for Kashmir from the control of the Indian government -- but as a realist, he continues to work with the people in power.
"There are scenes where you can see that we were depressed, that we were giving up on the place," Patel says. "You did not hear us talking like that at the beginning. But there was one thing that inspired us and kept us going and hopeful -- and it was these three characters."
Adds Kheshgi, "They have lost so much, and yet they get up every morning and they keep their hopes alive, despite all that is impossible to achieve."
For the young filmmakers, that is perhaps the central message of a film that they have laboured over, differed about, and crafted with great empathy.
Image: Soldiers patrol an area near Jammu after an encounter with militants in the city.
Photograph: Strdel/AFP/Getty Images
Also read: Why Pakistan is reactivating the Kashmir front
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