The Uninvited shines at Youth Performing Arts Festival

Set against the backdrop of terrorism, the short film, was the most impressive aspect of the opening day.

LAHORE: For anyone who believes the youth in Pakistan is indifferent towards the political and social changes in the country, the opening day of the ninth Youth Performing Arts Festival in Lahore was a delightful surprise to the contrary.

Performances in three different mediums - theatre, mime and film - dealt with current issues and tried to seek solutions to them. The performers, if judged by critical standards, may not win kudos but were definitely impressive given the fact that the festival is the first such large-scale activity organised by the Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop. Cracker bombs at the World Performing Arts Festival in 2008 put an end to events such as this.

The Uninvited, a short film by National College of Arts graduate Zaheer Shahid, was the most impressive aspect of the opening day. Set against the backdrop of terrorism, the film deals with problems related to ethnicity. It highlighted the stereotypical approach that society has adopted towards Pakhtuns.

The story revolves around a lone couple in their 50s. The wife, who is a working woman, returns home where her blind husband awaits her. She reaches her house but runs into an armed Pakhtun there who storms into the house as he is looking for a refuge. Meanwhile, a girl who lives in the neighbourhood comes to see the couple. After a short while, TV channels run footage about a terrorist. The girl identifies the armed man in the house but is forced to remain silent. The ailing husband suffers an asthmatic attack, but the gunman doesn’t allow anyone to go out. After some time, his partner comes and he leaves the house but later realises that he has forgotten his cell phone. In the meantime, law enforcement agencies also reach the couple’s place to arrest the man.

But the suspect has a change of heart. When he returns to get his cell phone, he decides to save the old man’s life. He carries him to his partner’s car but is shot by law enforcement officials. The officials  later realise they killed the wrong person as the armed man wasn’t a terrorist but a poor Pakhtun searching for refuge.

The Uninvited reflected on how people look at those from different ethnicities without understanding that many of them are only trying to earn a decent livelihood.

The film also boasted a good soundtrack and was made on an approximate budget of Rs300,000. Zaheer Shahid, who is the son of the Pakistani film actor Shahid Hameed, told The Express Tribune that he tried to show other aspects of terrorism. “Most of us know why terrorism occurs but we aren’t paying attention towards the bad impact of stereotypes in our society. This is what I wanted to show through my film,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 26^th, 2010.