First up at the world’s oldest film festival was the showing of Mira Nair’s “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” – a political thriller about a soulful young Pakistani man torn between Wall Street ambitions and the call of his homeland.

This clash of civilizations tale is set in New York and Lahore before and after the September 11 attacks and drew gasps from the audience as it detailed the humiliations suffered in America by British actor Riz Ahmed as Changez.

The character is increasingly alienated by the United States after the attacks and returns to Pakistan where he starts teaching at a university riven by militancy where CIA agents are searching for a kidnapped US professor.

Changez’s ultimate rejection of all fundamentalisms – despite his crooked smile at seeing the Twin Towers collapse – drew applause in Venice, where audiences were also wowed by “Monsoon Wedding” Nair’s trademark rich hues.

“We all know there’s been an enormous schism, a wall between East and West in the past decade. I wanted to bring some sense of bridge-making, some sense of healing that goes beyond stereotype,” Nair said at a press conference.

“I believe I’ve been put on this earth to tell stories of people like me who live between worlds,” she said, adding that she had drawn inspiration from her own experience of changing attitudes in the aftermath of September 11.

“Suddenly New York became a place where people who looked like us were ‘the other’ and that was painful,” said the Indian-born New York resident.

“Unlike what (former US President George W.) Bush said: ‘You’re either with us or against us’, I believe there is a middle ground,” Nair said.

The film is based on the award-winning novel by Mohsin Hamid.

Earlier, in an exclusive interview with Dawn.com, author Mohsin Hamid said he was hoping that the film would make a premier in Pakistan and praised Mira Nair’s work as the director, saying “Mira’s a very generous, inclusive film-maker. She regularly asked for my opinion. But a novel writer is part of the supporting cast in making a film, not the star.”

Among the most keenly awaited premieres are Terrence Malick’s “To the Wonder” – a complex love story starring Ben Affleck – and Robert Redford’s “The Company You Keep” with himself as a former Weather Underground militant.

One of the 18 films vying for the Golden Lion prize will be Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master” with Philip Seymour Hoffman as a character resembling Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard – a movie bound to raise controversy.

Music is also on the menu with Spike Lee’s hotly anticipated “Bad 25”documentary about pop icon Michael Jackson and Jonathan Demme of “The Silence of the Lambs” fame with his homage to Neapolitan crooner Enzo Avitabile.

Luxury yachts could be seen moored in some of the most picturesque corners of Venice ready to host festival parties and singing gondoliers were being kept busy plying the waterways with Hollywood veterans and up-and-coming auteurs.

Alongside US stars like director Brian De Palma and actresses Kate Hudson, Selena Gomez and Winona Ryder, there are also famous Asian directors Takeshi Kitano of Japan (“Outrage Beyond”) and Kim Ki-duk of South Korea (“Pieta”).

The first edition of the festival was held back in 1932 on the terrace of the glamorous Excelsior Hotel on the Venice Lido and featured movies by some of the best known directors of the time like Frank Capra and Howard Hawks.

This year’s festival, which runs until September 8, will project a total of 52 films including 21 by women directors – in contrast with the Cannes festival this year which featured no women directors for films in competition.

The Venice jury this year is headed up by US director, screenwriter and producer Michael Mann and includes French model and actress Laetitia Casta, British actress Samantha Norton and Hong Kong director Peter Chan.

Among the newcomers is Haifaa al-Mansour from Saudi Arabia – where cinemas are banned and women face sweeping daily discrimination – with her film “Wadjda” about a little girl desperate for a bicycle which she is not allowed.

Going back into Hollywood lore, the festival will also feature reclusive Oscar-winner Michael Cimino (“The Deer Hunter”) and a new director’s cut of his epic Western “Heaven’s Gate” – one of the biggest movie flops of all time.

On a more contemporary note is Ibrahim El Batout’s “Winter of Discontent”– a feature film which was shot in part during last year’s demonstrations in

Cairo’s Tahrir Square that ultimately unseated veteran president Hosni Mubarak.