LAHORE, May, 7: “It’s a pity that Pakistan does not have a film archive for it has a treasure of films especially from 1950s and 60s”, Philippe Jalladeau, the French creative festival director said.

Jalladeau is the person who put hectic efforts to find out ‘Jago Huwa Sawera”, the first Pakistani flick that won an international award.

The story of the film was penned down by eminent poet Fiaz Ahmed Fiaz and it was produced by Noman Taseer and directed by A J Kardar.

Mr Jalladeau is presently visiting Pakistan to deliver lectures on film and international festivals on an invitation by the National College of Arts.

He has been holding a festival screening films from three continents -- Latin America, Africa and Asia -- for the last 29 years in France. Jago Huwa Sawera was also screened at the festival in November last.

Explaining how he got hold of the film, Jalldeau said he had never seen any special segment on Pakistani films in any of the international festivals. “I have held special segments on films from countries such as India, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Azerbaijan and Philippines but never on Pakistan”.

He said in 2006 when he came to attend Kara Film Festival in Pakistan, he had meetings with Shirin Pasha from NCA and other film people and discussed with them the possibility of screening Pakistani flicks in the three continents film festival.

The director said he asked local film taskmasters to provide him with a list of 10 best Pakistani flicks, which was done by Shirin Pasha, telling him that ‘Jago Huwa Sawera’ was missing in Pakistan but it was included in the list.

The director faced difficulties in finding out the film as there was no archive in the country. He then looked for the film in Bangladesh, for the movie was shot there, besides contacting the British Film Institute, but all in vain. Finally he came to know that the family of a French woman, Allen, had the film reel. She had the film rights in 1950s for France and Italy. He got copies of the film from her and then screened it at the festival.

He was of the opinion that film being a strong medium of communication should be included in the education system. The cities should have their own cinemas where quality films should be screened, he said.

He said he liked Pakistani dishes a lot. He does not like to eat chicken in France but in Pakistan he loves its taste. “I also like soul fish a lot”, he added. He said Lahore Fort is his favorite archeological site and Badshahi mosque’s structure has inspired him a lot.

On Wednesday, NCA arranged his lectures and screened three films --The Egg, Possible Lives and Jago Huwa Sawera.