ISLAMABAD: Forget Hollywood, forget Bollywood — one of the first films to hit Saudi screens when cinemas reopen next year will be from Pakistan.
Parchi is an ensemble action/thriller-comedy starring Hareem Farooq, Ali Rehman Khan and Shafqat Cheema.
“We feel honored and proud that we are among the first, it’s pretty exciting and it is quite an achievement,” Farooq, also a co-producer of the movie, told Arab News.
“We always aim to do something new and expand our reach, not just stick to Pakistan.”
Pakistan is noted for outstanding drama and television plays, but film has lacked investment, storylines, direction and quality content. Now, however, the movie business is enjoying a revival.
The impact of going international is not lost on Farooq. “I think it’s proof that Pakistani cinema has international appeal, it shows that we are on the right track and that we do have a great future.”
In addition to commercial success, films are changing some of the conversation about Pakistan. “We always want to put Pakistan on the global map in a good light, that is what we work for,” Farooq said.
“Cinema is a platform that can change mindsets — it’s huge and plays a mighty role in our image projection abroad. All the world sees is extremism and terrorism, they don’t get to see what Pakistan is really about.
“We are as crazy and as normal as everywhere else.”
The soundtrack from Parchi has been well received, and the first single, Billo Hai, already has more than a million views on YouTube. The movie itself will be released on Jan. 5 in Pakistan and the UAE, and Jan.12 in the US. Cinemas in Saudi Arabia will reopen early next year after a 35-year ban.
Arab News has emailed the Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information for a confirmation about the film but no response has been received by the time of printing.
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Lights, camera, action: Pakistani stars head for Saudi cinemas
Lights, camera, action: Pakistani stars head for Saudi cinemas
12 Italians convicted for trying to revive Fascist party
ROME: Twelve members of Italy’s fringe group CasaPound have been jailed for seeking to revive the Fascist Party, which ruled from 1922 to 1943 under dictator Benito Mussolini.
It is the first time a law which bans the “reorganization of the dissolved Fascist party,” has been applied to the neo-fascist group, the Repubblica daily said Friday.
The case dates to 2018, when CasaPound members attacked people who attended a protest against Matteo Salvini, head of the anti-immigrant League party and then interior minister.
All defendants were convicted on Wednesday by a court in Bari in southern Italy and given 18 months in jail.
Seven were also sentenced to 12 months for assault.
Elly Schlein, head of the center-left opposition Democratic Party, called on Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s hard-right government to ban the group.
“Now that there’s a ruling that establishes it, the government has no choice but to do what we’ve been asking of it for a long time: dissolve Casapound, dissolve neo-fascist organizations as laid out in the constitution,” she said.
CasaPound, which is based in Rome, takes its name from Ezra Pound, the modernizt American poet who collaborated with Fascist Italy during World War II.
In parliamentary elections in 2013 and 2018, the group won less than one percent of the vote. It subsequently decided not to contest polls.
CasaPound members have been filmed making the Fascist salute in Rome, an action that current Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi condemned in 2024 as “contrary to our democratic culture.”
However, he said at the time that it was complicated to ban such groups, saying the law only allowed for this in very limited circumstances.
Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy party has its roots in the MSI, a party founded by supporters of Mussolini after World War II.
However, the prime minister has condemned Fascism and acknowledged Fascist Italy’s complicity in the Holocaust.
It is the first time a law which bans the “reorganization of the dissolved Fascist party,” has been applied to the neo-fascist group, the Repubblica daily said Friday.
The case dates to 2018, when CasaPound members attacked people who attended a protest against Matteo Salvini, head of the anti-immigrant League party and then interior minister.
All defendants were convicted on Wednesday by a court in Bari in southern Italy and given 18 months in jail.
Seven were also sentenced to 12 months for assault.
Elly Schlein, head of the center-left opposition Democratic Party, called on Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s hard-right government to ban the group.
“Now that there’s a ruling that establishes it, the government has no choice but to do what we’ve been asking of it for a long time: dissolve Casapound, dissolve neo-fascist organizations as laid out in the constitution,” she said.
CasaPound, which is based in Rome, takes its name from Ezra Pound, the modernizt American poet who collaborated with Fascist Italy during World War II.
In parliamentary elections in 2013 and 2018, the group won less than one percent of the vote. It subsequently decided not to contest polls.
CasaPound members have been filmed making the Fascist salute in Rome, an action that current Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi condemned in 2024 as “contrary to our democratic culture.”
However, he said at the time that it was complicated to ban such groups, saying the law only allowed for this in very limited circumstances.
Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy party has its roots in the MSI, a party founded by supporters of Mussolini after World War II.
However, the prime minister has condemned Fascism and acknowledged Fascist Italy’s complicity in the Holocaust.
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