ISLAMABAD: Pakistani filmmaker Iram Parveen Bilal, who made history last week as the first director of a feature film from the South Asia nation to be invited to the glamorous Cannes Film Festival, said she wished to “keep the hope alive” for other Pakistanis wanting to make their mark at international cinema events.
Last year, Pakistan’s best known film actress Mahira Khan made her debut at Cannes. Before her, the only other Pakistani artist to attend the festival was Adnan Siddiqui who took the film ‘A Mighty Heart’ to the event in 2008 with Hollywood bigwigs Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.
Now Bilal has made it to the festival as part of the prestigious Cinefondation L’Atelier program that picks 15 directors with “particularly promising projects” for a seven-day intensive fast track finance program. The program has a 93 percent financing and distribution success rate.
“It is surreal, it is the world’s biggest stage for cinema,” Bilal told Arab News in an interview, answering a question about what it felt like to attend Cannes. “I’m humbled and really honored to be included in a prestigious official selection of the festival. To be honest, I’m still a bit numb and processing it.”
But then she added: “If you’re honest and rooted as an artist, the magic will come. That’s the magic we all strive to create.”
Bilal’s project ‘Wakhri,’ the Urdu word for ‘different,’ is about an accidental social media star “who learns the harsh cost of wearing masks in the real world.”
“The film deals with themes like hypocrisy, trolling and the ultimate empowerment of self,” Bilal said.
Bilal has been directing films for over 10 years. Her first feature film ‘Josh’ was the very first Pakistani film to land on streaming giant Netflix and is also part of the permanent selection in the US Library of Congress.
Born to academic parents, and an environmental sciences engineer herself, she is the first in her family to deviate from the scientific path into the “wild west of the entertainment industry.”
The Cinefondation L’Atelier program, of which Bilal’s Wakhri is a part, has a 93 percent financing and distribution success rate, the filmmaker said.
“The general manager of the program watched my work at the Locarno Film Festival’s film library and had been tracking me,” Bilal said. The GM then met Abid Merchant, Wakhri’s producer, and the pair were invited to apply to the program.
In addition to being a part of the Cinefondation L’Atelier group, Bilal also spoke at Cannes on a ‘Storytellers and the Creative Process’ panel where she got to engage with early career filmmakers and students and spoke about her approach to filmmaking.
Cannes has recently come under fire for its under-representation of women filmmakers and directors, but Bilal said she tried to ignore the “depressing” statistics.
“I just focus on possibilities and on realizing that I have been fortunate enough to be a trail blazer and perhaps, even in this case, we can somehow go against the odds and achieve something very unexpected,” the Pakistani director said.
“It is humbling and I hope my participation will open doors for many more to come from our country.”
Bilal said Pakistan had so much filmmaking talent but little to no access.
“It has taken me years of building my work and a network to get to this point. I hope this leverages for people coming up the ranks right behind me,” the filmmaker said. “I take representing Pakistan very seriously. If we are as professional and committed as we can be, we keep the hope alive for others coming behind us as well.”
‘The magic will come’: First Pakistani filmmaker at Cannes hopes to light the way for others
‘The magic will come’: First Pakistani filmmaker at Cannes hopes to light the way for others
- Iram Parveen Bilal is part of the Cinefondation’s Atelier program which picks 15 directors with “particularly promising” projects
- ‘Wakhri’ is about the accidental social media star “who learns the harsh cost of wearing masks in the real world,” Bilal says
Pakistan reviews austerity measures amid Middle East crisis, urges strict nationwide implementation
- Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar chairs review meeting of austerity steps
- Officials briefed on salary cuts, school closures, four‑day week, petrol conservation
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s government on Wednesday assessed progress on a sweeping set of austerity measures introduced to mitigate the country’s economic strain from sharply rising global oil prices and supply disruptions linked to the ongoing war in the Middle East.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif this week announced a series of austerity steps, including a four‑day work week for government offices, requiring 50 percent of staff to work from home, cutting fuel allowances for official vehicles by half, grounding up to 60 percent of the government fleet and closing all schools for two weeks to conserve fuel amid the global oil crisis.
The measures were unveiled in response to global oil market volatility triggered by the conflict involving the United States, Israel and Iran, which has disrupted supply routes such as the Strait of Hormuz and pushed crude prices sharply higher, straining Pakistan’s heavily import‑dependent energy sector.
“The meeting stressed the importance of strict and transparent adherence to the austerity measures, promoting fiscal responsibility and prudent use of public resources,” Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar said in a statement.
He was chairing a meeting of the Committee for Monitoring and Implementation of Conservation and Additional Austerity Measures, constituted under the directions of the PM, bringing together federal and provincial officials to review execution of the broad cost‑cutting plan.
Dar emphasized the government’s commitment to enforcing the PM’s austerity steps nationwide. The committee’s review also covered reductions in departmental expenditure, deductions from salaries of senior officials earning over Rs. 300,000 ($1,120), and coordination with provincial administrations to ensure uniform implementation of the plan.
Participants at the meeting reiterated that all ministries and divisions must continue strict monitoring and reporting, with transparent oversight mechanisms, as Pakistan navigates the economic pressures from the prolonged Middle East crisis and its fallout on global energy and trade markets.
