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JEDDAH: Pakistani feature film, In Flames, has won the best feature film award, the highest honour at the Red Sea International Film Festival.
When the announcement was made at the award ceremony, the cast along with the film producer went to the stage to receive the Yusr gold award, which carries a $100,000 cash prize — their biggest achievement so far for the film that is also the official entry from Pakistan for the Oscars this year.
The second award in Yusr silver category went to an Indian film, Dear Jassi, the only Punjabi film screened at the festival.
The win by In Flames is quite an achievement for the cast, especially the three actors in the main lead, Ramesha Nawal, Omar Javaid and Bakhtawar Mazhar who made their debut with this movie, and script writer Zarrar Kahn who was making his directorial debut. Producer Shant Joshi, flanked by the entire cast, received the prize.
Movie directed by Zarrar Kahn awarded coveted Yusr gold award by jury
Two juries, led by jury president Baz Luhrmann, deliberated to finally select winners in 14 categories. Seventeen films in competition as well as 23 shorts were in the running for the coveted awards.
“We were not expecting the win. This is something huge for me as it’s my first-ever project of any kind. Baz Luhrmann and all the other jury members praised us all a lot,” said Ramesha while talking to Dawn after receiving the prize.
She said she and others in the team knew their film was good but it was in competition with all the other good movies too such as Inshallah Boy and Tiger Stripes and winning against all such good movies was an honour.
“This opens up a flood of opportunities for Pakistani cinema whose path was paved by Joyland. In Flames has been officially nominated for the Oscars from Pakistan and we are looking forward to it. More films may come out of Pakistan after our film.”
Ramesha told Dawn she was doing BS in Media Sciences at a university in Karachi and she took a break from education after being selected for the film. She gave online auditions for the role during the Covid lockdown. Before that she had done some theatre with Tehrik-i-Niswaan of Sheema Kermani in Karachi. She is a part of the group of Sheema.
“I was giving auditions for TV dramas in production houses and I asked my friend to send me some audition calls where I saw the casting call for In Flames. I was not expecting to get this role for the film even after the second audition.”
In Flames is also the debut feature film of male lead Omar Javaid. “Zarrar Kahn had watched my short film Hafiz and I had watched his short film, Stray Dogs Come Out at Night. We connected on Instagram.
“I was in Canada then and he suggested that we should do some project together. I did not believe in his suggestion then, but Zarrar actually made it happen.”
Omar is the only Canadian cast member and it was his first time working in Karachi. He has done nine-to-five jobs and opted for a drama course. Despite his shy demeanor, he jumped into acting and made it big. “A good story” and “an interesting character” attracted him to the project.
Being a Punjabi, Omar is looking forward to doing Punjabi films, including those from India, which have quite a following and audience in Canada and the UK besides Pakistan and India.
In Flames is a horror drama, with a mother and her daughter at the centre of all the action. The family finds it hard to make ends meet and has inheritance issues after the death of the patriarch of the family.
At the Red Sea film festival, Aseem Chhabra — an Indian film critic and author of books on Shashi Kapoor, Irrfan Khan and Priyanka Chopra — thinks In Flames might have won the coveted award for the horror element in it that got jury’s attention.
Chhabra’s compatriot, Ajit Rai, another film critic and cultural journalist, says the film won the award for its women-centric theme and a story with strong feministic elements. When referred to various other women centric films in the festival that had about 34 films directed by women about the gender issues, he says In Flames is different in that the women characters remain victorious in their struggle at the end.
The idea resonated with Bakhtawar Mazhar, who plays the key role of the mother, as she told Dawn that she liked the script more. Its women characters took things in their own hand and survived without any help from any man.
Jomana Al-Rashid, chairwoman of the Red Sea Film Foundation, in her address, said the festival had celebrated this vibrant global film community together with a goal of bridging cultures and creating new ties.
“We’ve done that with over 125 films from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Rwanda, Armenia, Malaysia, Pakistan, New Zealand, France, India, Thailand, and many more — as well as an industry programme in the Souk with 348 project submissions, and 44 works in progress from more than 26 countries,” she added.
Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2023
