ISLAMABAD: The embassies of Argentina, Austria, Belgium, France, Switzerland and Tunisia came together to hold the Francophonie Festival at the Centre Culturel Français in Islamabad on Saturday.

The festival celebrated the ‘Semaine de la Francophonie’ or French Language and Francophonie Week which was created in 1995 around March 20, the International Day of the Francophonie.

Held in the Diplomatic Enclave, the festival had a select albeit diverse audience, as guests of the different embassies, students and teachers of French and people associated with the Alliance Francaise attended the day-long event.

Each of the participating embassies had a small pavilion where they displayed materials related to culture and tourism in their countries and had a few treats of cuisine typical to each country.

Argentina for instance shared with visitors, vegetarian and beef empanadas, a fast–food staple in Buenos Aires, Alfajores or Dulce de Leche sandwich cookies rolled in shredded coconut, and Pasta flora, a sweet tart common to Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Egypt and Greece.

The programme for the day included screenings of films from Switzerland, Argentina and Tunisia.

In the Swiss film, Mr Moll and the Chocolate Factory, Papa Moll is left home alone with his children and mayhem results as his children get into a feud with the boys next door.

Los Corroboradores from Argentina and A better Life from Tunisia were also shown.

Uzma Nomani, a visitor to the festival, said: “The event brought together people from Argentina and Austria, and other French-speaking countries, and I was able to talk to them and learn about their countries — a very different experience from searching on the internet.”

She added: “I have added Argentina and Austria to my bucket list of countries to visit. I was able to exercise my admittedly limited French language skills and the cheese quiche and salmon quiche at the French stall was ‘délicieuse’.”

Fizza Hasan said: “It was good to see something public happening in the Francophone community. We grew up in an Islamabad in which the Francophone community was our window into Europe and European culture. I hope that kind of activity can be revived, and that the Alliance Francaise can once again be at the heart of cultural activities in the capital.”

The evening ended with a concert by ‘The Wild Mangoes’ organised by the Alliance Française.

The band exemplifies cultural diplomacy as it was formed by two Hungarian and three Pakistani musicians. Attila Kocsis and Sándor Mihálkó were diplomats of the Embassy of Hungary in Islamabad.

While from Pakistan, Zeejah Fazli, founder of the Foundation for Arts, Culture and Education, Muqeet Khan, a media personality, and Ali Tahir, a professional musician, came together in 2015 to put together ‘The Wild Mangoes’.

As always, the band’s multilingual classic rock, Rock n’ Roll, Blues, Hard rock and Pop selections kept the crowd thoroughly entertained, ending the entertainment-packed day with music.

Amjad Ali said: “I have been wanting to join French classes now that spring break is about to start. I found out that there are lots of different class levels and timings and I’m sure I’ll find something that will suit my schedule.

“It’s also great that the Alliance does different events — I learnt that here is a French play happening soon as well. It’s been an informative and fun day for me!.”

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2019