The Mini-INPUT festival of TV films continued
The Mini-INPUT festival of TV films, jointly sponsored by Geo TV and the Goethe-Institut, continued for the second day on Tuesday at the Goethe-Institut, Karachi.
Among the films screened were, Rosita, Main Ne Quaid Ko Dekha Hai, and Rage.
All three had profound messages to convey, messages so relevant to the modern-day world with its rat race pace of life, with human values capitulating to the onslaught of capitalism, and all the social disruption resulting from the materialism that marks modern day life.
Rosita is the story of a nine-year old Nicaraguan girl (child) living with her parents in Costa Rica who is raped and becomes pregnant. Apart from the loss of face that it brings the family, they are confronted with a dilemma. The parents want to have the pregnancy terminated but the state forbids abortion, both Nicaragua and Costa Rica being staunchly Roman Catholic countries, which outlaw abortion.
The film in the most sensitive of manner depicts the tussle between expediency and social values.
Rage, a ninety-minute German entry, is the story of a drug addict gang of youths who are Turkish immigrants. It has a multitude of messages to convey but what strikes the viewer the most is the strongly anti-immigrant flavour of the movie. Turkish youths are portrayed as a lot of the most unscrupulous and wicked louts. The story pivots round a gang leader, Can (pronounced Jan) whose criminality and wickedness know no limits. Besides this the film is also a depiction of the conflict between the affluent and the deprived segments of society in the capitalist world. The real objects of Can’s wrath are a wealthy university professor, his wife, and son.
However, perhaps, the most gripping entry was, “Main ne Quaid ko dekha hai”, .reminiscences of the Quaid-e-Azam of a little boy. It shows the charismatic personality of the Quaid-e-Azam and the way he caught the followers’ rapt attention at his public meetings. It is a precise description of the massive following the leader commanded among the Muslims of the Sub-Continent. The film begins with the events of 1940, the year of the passage of the Pakistan Resolution, with the lad of eight or nine attending the Quaid’s public meetings. The closing scene shows that very child in 2007, now an elderly man, in the closing years of his life, ready to wrap up his earthly tenure. He’s shown watching the flag hoisting at the Minar-e-Pakistan at Iqbal Park (then Minto Park) at Lahore, on the occasion of the Pakistan Day.
The young amateur film producer, Sajid Zaki, deserves all the laurels for this particular scene which capture the rapidly switching emotions reflected in the elderly man’s facial expressions, expressive of nostalgia, of the golden dreams, of the aspirations, that marked the goal of Pakistan. The expressions vary from deeply contemplative to those reflecting nostalgia, joy, and sometimes pensive.
Zaki, a young man in his 20s, a free lance media director and concept designer, holds lots of promise as a maker of movies which profoundly depict human situations. The screenings will wind up on Wednesday.
Source: The News
Date:2/6/2008
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