Il Messaggiere - First all-Pakistani production makes history at Berlin film fest

"Lali", by director Sarmad Sultan Khoosat, had its world premiere on Thursday at a packed screening where it was warmly welcomed by members of Berlin's own Pakistani community, which included the country's ambassador to Germany.

The Punjabi-language black comedy tells the story of Sajawal (Channan Hanif) and his new bride Zeba (Mamya Shajaffar).

The locals in their working-class part of the city of Sahiwal mutter that Zeba is living under a curse after her previous suitors died in mysterious circumstances.

Khoosat told AFP that making Pakistan's debut at the festival came with "a good sense of achievement, but also with a sense of responsibility".

He said it was a "sign of validation" to achieve recognition with a story "deeply rooted in its own idiom".

Part of that idiom is the boisterous humour that the Punjab region is known for, portrayed in part through Sajawal's mother, the imposing matriarch Sohni Ammi.

The film opens with her encouraging the men of the neighbourhood to fire guns in celebration of Sajawal's wedding -- only for her to get shot in the leg.

- 'New generation' of filmmakers -

The mordant humour alternates with more serious themes like desire, sexuality and unhealed trauma and occasional suggestions of magic and the supernatural.

Although Khoosat pointed out nothing that takes place on screen is physically impossible.

"Lali"'s premiere at Berlin has echoes of the trajectory of "Joyland" by Saim Sadiq, which became the first ever Pakistani entry in competition at the Cannes film festival in 2022.

That film tells the story of a man falling for the trans director of a dance troupe and received critical acclaim as well the Jury Prize and the "Queer Palm" at Cannes.

Khoosat was a producer on that film and Sadiq in turn worked as an editor on "Lali".

Is Khoosat hopeful that such films can raise the profile of Pakistani cinema?

He said that the industry in Pakistan has been struggling, suffering a "semi-gradual kind of demise" over the past 20 years or so.

"Before that, we had a big cinema scene... which would produce, you know, more than 100 films a year. "

But Khoosat said Pakistani cinema has struggled to rise of other media and did not "cater to a newer audience".

Could films like "Lali" bring Pakistani cinema new recognition?

"This opportunity of visibility on such platforms -- I just wish that, you know, it would translate into a more thriving" domestic film industry, Khoosat said.

"There's definitely a whole new generation of filmmakers, and they need to be facilitated to produce more work."

K.Costa--IM