Qualche mese fa vi avevo annunciato Zinda Bhaag, il film pachistano interpretato da Naseeruddin Shah (clicca qui). Oggi vi segnalo l'articolo The making of new Pakistani cinema - With help from India, di Meha Mathur, pubblicato da Business of Cinema il 9 agosto 2012. Il testo riporta le dichiarazioni rilasciate dal produttore e dai registi di ZB. Scopriamo così alcuni aspetti interessanti relativi non solo alla genesi della pellicola ma anche alla nuova scena cinematografica pachistana: 'It was a challenge to go for a feature film in Pakistan. The whole film industry has collapsed. No technical facilities are available. Nor are actors available. (...) As acting talent was not handy, they invited Naseeruddin Shah to conduct workshops with non-actors. The film (...) takes up the sensitive issue of illegal immigration, a burning topic in Pakistan. As the team researched on the reasons for youngsters taking the risk of illegal migration and visited neighbourhoods in Lahore to meet such youngsters, they realised that there were areas where each family had a story to tell. The topic was too close to these youngsters and their families and thus it made sense to cast these youngsters in the film, aided by some training in acting'. Quanto ai titoli del nuovo cinema pachistano 'were equally popular as any mainstream entertainment film and these bold subjects were, in fact, financially viable. Also, the categorisation between multiplex audiences and single-screen audiences was not as stark as in India, they said. They, however, admitted that in the absence of organised financing for new cinema, it remained to be seen if this movement could sustain. An interesting aspect of filmmaking they highlighted was a vibrant trend of very small budget movies in regional languages like Saraiki and Pashto, shot on small digital cameras and released in neighbourhoods. (Il produttore) emphasised that as state support for the film industry dried up over the decades, something else emerged: a thriving DVD and CD industry showing regional films to families at home. (...) Claiming that government apathy, excessive taxation and strange censorship laws had led to the downfall of the Pakistani film industry in the first place, the team claimed that new funding was coming primarily in the form of family investments and foreign investment. Also, new TV channels are coming in to finance the new film ventures'.
