LAHORE, Feb 9: Film lovers thronged the Sozo World cinema on Friday despite dusty winds and rain to see the travelling KaraFilm Festival which screened award winning and selected films from the sixth festival.

According to festival director Hasan Zaidi, this time around 26 or so films would be shown, many of which have won awards. Since 2001, the festival moves around Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.

While in Karachi, the festival lasted for 10 days, showing about 170 films, in Lahore and Islamabad the films are to be screened for three consecutive days. Usually the festival begins in December but this time it was delayed due to Muharram. Beginning on Friday, the festival will continue till Sunday, and has a varied mix of documentaries, short films and even feature films for daytime and prime time viewing.

Divided into slots of daytime and prime time screenings, yesterday’s schedule was set to begin at four in the afternoon with seven documentaries. UK’s The intimacy of strangers is a story of life, love, loss and hope constructed from real cell phone conversations of strangers, while the Indian One show less focuses on the dying breed of single screen cinemas. Pakistan’s Daas kulcha talks about a shop that still follows a culinary tradition as the Spanish Pan (bread) is about the endurance power of two boys.

Another Spanish film, Fuego Del Angel (Angel’s Fire) tackles the issue of child labour and poverty while the Pakistani film Gwadar: between golden acres and the deep blue sea deals with the social and environmental impact of development along the Mekran coast. The seventh film from the US Freestyle: the art of rhyme is set in the world of improvisational rap.

For prime time viewing, the first feature film to be screened was The road to Guantanamo which is a true story of three innocent Pakistanis being held on charges of terrorism at the Guantanamo Bay prison. The film has won the awards for best cinematography and best editing at the sixth KaraFilm Festival. The second film, The wind that shakes the barley, is winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival in 2006 and is about two brothers caught up in the civil strife of 1920s Ireland.

Saturday’s schedule is to begin at three in the afternoon with the Pakistani documentary Aaj bazaar mein (In spirit and flesh: the women of Lahore’s diamond market) and the Indian AFSPA, 1958 which revolves around the life of a community in revolt against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in Manipur. A feature film that won the best feature film award Nayi neralu (In the shadow of a dog) is to begin at five.

The first feature to be shown for prime time viewing is the French Le petit lieutenant. To begin at 7:30, the film is a thriller about a cop who joins a crime unit in Paris. The second film to begin at 9:30 is the Indian Khosla ka ghosla (Khosla’s nest) which won the best original screenplay award and is about Mr Khosla who hopes to spend his retirement in peace but whose plans get upset when the land mafia grabs his housing plot.

Showcasing films from about 37 countries the KaraFilm is here, if only for a short while, and tickets can be had from Sozo World cinema during the festival apart from Hot Spot, Jammin Java and Lahore Chitrkar. Detailed schedules of the three days’ screenings are available at all ticket sale outlets or can be found on the website www.karafilmfest.com. Sponsored by Mobilink, the festival’s media partner is Dawn as City FM 89 is its radio partner.