KARACHI: The Gandhara Independent Film Festival (GIFF) 2025 began in collaboration with the National Academy of Performing Arts (Napa) on Friday evening with a trilogy of short films — Spider, Bear and Shark – by Australian filmmaker Nash Edgerton.
The three movies, which had been screened at the event a couple of years back as well, have an absurdist view of life and can be categorised as (clichéd) dark comedy. Jack is the central character, who is a prankster. In each film, he has a different female partner — the last one (in Shark) he marries — on whom he likes to pull a prank. But each time it goes horribly wrong, even when his wife enjoys what he does and is a bit of a prankster herself. The end is pretty bleak, though.
Earlier, the programme began with a red carpet ceremony after which guests stepped into the Zia Mohyeddin Theatre to watch the movies. A member of the organising committee, Kiran Murad, informing the audience on the festival, said, “It’s Pakistan’s first digital festival. It was created not only to celebrate independent cinema all across the world but to give young Pakistani filmmakers a platform. The goal has always been to support emerging voices and to discover powerful new storytellers, basically bringing together filmmakers who remind us why cinema matters. Since 2022, Napa has been our home.”
She said this year they received more than 2,000 films from across Pakistan and around the world. Out of them 45 were selected, 18 of which would be screened on Saturday and Sunday at Napa. And the whole line-up would be available online through Myco.
Head of Napa’s music department Hamza Jafri said Napa is an educational institute for the arts. “There’s theatre and there’s music. We offer a three-year intensive diploma programme where we teach theory and practical. In order to create a film, you need set design, production design, lighting, music, writers, directors and actors. And all those art forms are taught here.”
Afreen Zehra introduced the films to the audience.
The next two short movies that were slated to be shown after the Australian trilogy were the Canadian film Monsters helmed by Frank Tremblay and the European offering The Letter Room directedby Elvira Lind. The former is about an eight-year-old boy Jimmy whose mother keeps him inside their home to keep the monsters outside at bay. The child, however, gets curious about the world outside. The latter focuses on a prison officer.
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