Tokei Maru (Greece)
Apart from the three winners mentioned above, a few other titles really stood out. Dying Candle (Nepal), a strong, unique and engaging story of an immature kid and his elder sister who runs a small alcohol shop in her home, immediately comes to mind as one of PIFF’s better selections. Director Naresh Kumar NC, one of the visiting filmmakers at the festival, had delivered a technically and aesthetically sound motion picture, brimming with subtext and in-your-face drama. Performance-wise, Srijana Subba (a theatre actor) walks a very delicate line as a woman who faces compromises at every turn for the sake of her family. The film, a prime contender in the Best Feature race in my opinion, was mistakenly left out of the presentation due to an editing goof-up; a clip from Cake (a last minute addition to the festival, and a title no one voted on) ran in its place.
Zaraab, the second-to-none best feature of the festival in my opinion, is a difficult-to-pull-off, character-driven tale of a lower-class family living in Gwadar. Although a submission from Bahrain, the cast is entirely Pakistani (the film’s main language is Balochi). Then Moomal Rano, a contemporary reworking of the Sindhi tale starring Saba Qamar and Ahsan Khan had the most cinematic presence of the lot. Directed by Siraj ul Haque, the film is a Pakistan-India collaboration.
As Seen on TV (Argentina), a contender for the Best Short Film Award, had a very pertinent message on ethics and moralities of entertainment and social media. Other engaging titles were: Some Lover to Some Beloved (documentary feature, starring Zia Mohyeddin’s life), My Heart (a short-short film from Iran), Tokei Maru (Greece), The Edge (Russia), Madinay Wala Jahaz (Pakistan) and The Survivor (Pakistan).
The Pakistan premieres included Cake (Pakistan), The Valley (US), and Songs of Scorpions. Cake, of course, was a revelation and you can read the full review of it elsewhere in Icon.
While it was commendable that PIFF was hosted at multiple venues across the city — Goethe Institut, Alliance-Francaise, Zaiuddin University, Iqra University (Defence and Nazimabad campuses), T2F and Nueplex played host to screenings of these and most of the other titles — the scattered venues did showcase the need for a central focal point for a festival. The lack of availability and proper publicisation in advance of festival schedules and the availability of tickets also became a sore point for many.
Somewhere in the mix, six panel discussions were also held at Ziauddin University with visiting guests Vinay Pathak, Vishal and Rekha Bharadwaj, Nandita Das, Harsh Narayan, Anjum Rajabali, Zeenat Lakhani, Saket Chaudhry, Nishita Jain, Madhab Panda, Subhash Kapoor, Shobhu Yarlagadda and S. Rajamouli. Of course, it wasn’t all India — the panels included Pakistani filmmakers and celebrities, among them directors Asim Raza and Jami and singer-actor Ali Zafar.The panels could have also been better publicised and made more accessible for general audiences, especially given the heavyweights featured in them.
Even though aspects unique to a film festival either got sidetracked (some even thrown out the window, such as regular Q&As after screenings), the sheer drive of creating an annual initiative is an ambitious undertaking by PIFF’s core spearheaders Sultana Siddiqui (President Hum Network), Badar Ikram (Head, Hum Films) and Festival Director Abrar ul Hasan. And for the first time, irrespective of the jaggedness of the enterprise, the event was pumped up by genuineness and good intentions. Management skills will, hopefully, be better next year.
Published in Dawn, ICON, April 8th, 2018