NEW YORK, April 29: Sustained applause rang out in a packed downtown cinema house on Monday night at the end of Pakistan’s first-ever film featured in a major international festival film.

Mehreen Jabbar’s poignant “Ramchand Pakistani” drew appreciative comments from knowledgeable New York movie-goers and critics. It is among 121 feature films and 79 short films representing 41 different countries being screened in the Tribeca Film Festival.

The movie, starring Indian actress Nandita Das, is a real-life story of an eight-year-old Pakistani Hindu boy who strays across the Indo-Pakistan border and is captured by Indian police. His father, who goes looking for him, is also arrested and the two spend years in jail after being labelled as spies.

Mehreen’s father Javed Jabbar wrote the story of the film, which he produced.—APP