Pak movie featuring Nandita Das to be screened at Tribeca fest

ISLAMABAD: A movie starring Indian actress Nandita Das and based on the real-life story of a seven-year-old Pakistani Hindu boy and his father who accidentally cross the border and are jailed will be screened at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival in New York.
    
"Ramchand Pakistani", which hopes to bring the two nations closer by showcasing the emotional turmoil that ordinary people on both sides of the border experience because of the strained political relations, has an apt tagline -- "Two nations Poised for War. One Family Torn Apart".
    
The film will be screened along with 79 other films from 41 countries at the festival, which began today and will be on till May 4. The film is likely to be released in India and Pakistan soon.
    
The movie by first-time Pakistani feature filmmaker Mehreen Jabbar stars Nandita Das as the woman whose husband and son are jailed for being "spies". Das plays Champa, the woman whose seven-year-old son Ramchand and husband disappear from their village near Nagarparkar, located along the border with India.
    
The film revolves around Ramchand, who grows up in an Indian prison with his father, but with no memory of his mother.
    
"The story is deeply rooted in the complex relationships that characterise interactions between Pakistan and India, and Muslims and Hindus," Jabbar said.
    
"Ramchand Pakistani" was recently awarded the Global Film Initiative Grant, an initiative to support films that promote "cross-cultural understanding".