Pakistani short makes it to Jaipur Film Festival

'A Train Crosses the Desert' has already been screened at five other international film festival

KARACHI:

Pakistani short film A Train Crosses the Desert has been selected for screening in Rajhastan at the prestigious Jaipur Film Festival. The said event will mark the sixth international screening for the Sindhi short film.

Prior to Jaipur Film Fest, A Train Crosses the Desert had been selected at Asian Film Festival, LA in October. However, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, no screening was held. After the LA Fest, the film was screened at Muestra Itinerante De Cine Mx (MICMX) 2020 (Mexico) in November and the 8th International Silk Road Film Awards 2020 in Turkey on December 7.

Other than that, the film is all set to screen at LIFFT India Filmotsav - World Cine Fest 2020 (India) on December 25 this year and South Asian International Film Festival (NYC, US) on December 20 and 21.

The Jaipur Film Festival will take place in January. "The film is based on a real-life incident," director Rahul Aijaz told The Express Tribune. "My cousin died of cancer and the short film is inspired by that. It's a dramatisation about two brothers - one of them is terminally ill. And the film is about one brother euthanising the other."

In a note he had penned on social media, Aijaz had shared, "I must say, this film has been very personal to me. Perhaps that's why I chose to make it the first chance I got. A story about music and death and brotherhood and fighting for life. We all put our hearts into it."

Aijaz went on, "Thank you to my incredible cast and crew for making it happen. And not to mention, the beautiful poems by Egyptian poet Mr Ashraf Dali which served as the railway track for this train."

He added, "And finally, a big thanks to Till Passow and Goethe-Institute Pakistan’s Zoya Ahmed. I've been a part of 'Film Talents - Unheard Voices from Pakistan and Afghanistan' fellowship since last year and it has afforded me the opportunity to make something I truly believe in."

Aijaz revealed that he and his team shot the 20-minute film in one day.

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