ISLAMABAD: Pakistani's don't know much about Brazil beyond football and we wanted to showcase our culture for them through this festival. This was Thomaz Mayer's explanation, who is the first secretary at the Brazilian embassy in Islamabad, for the reason behind organising the Brazilian Film Festival.

Nine days later, the festival has come to an end and seems to have achieved its purpose. “The Brazilian movie festival highlighted a Brazil that is not all about carnivals, samba and football. This was a Brazil more humane, thoughtful and creative at the same time and the one a significant number of Pakistanis could relate to,” concluded a thoughtful movie-goer, Sadiq Aale Mohammad about the festival. He had made it to three out of the nine films shown.

In fact, many of the movies highlighted the complexity and diversity of a country like Brazil.

Take 'Cinema, aspirins and vultures'. Screened last Wednesday, this is a movie about a German who escapes during the Second World War (WW-II) and starts working as a salesman. In the movie, this character chronicles his daily life making a living selling by aspirin in rural Brazil. This was a Brazil far removed from both Amazon and Rio de Janeiro.

“Imagine going to a far flung village of Sindh and making a movie based around the life there as representation of Pakistan. This is what the movie was like – completely different from the image one might have of Brazil,” opined one of the audience members after the movie.

Similarly the movie: 'Motorcycle Diaries' stays far away from the ordinary. Following a road trip by Ernesto Che Guevara and Alberto Granado across South America from Buenos Aires to San Pable in Peru, the movie puts Che Guevara, 23 years old back then, into a new light and it is easy to see why he will later have such a cult following.

It also shows amazing landscapes throughout the continent which makes everyone wonder why South America is not on every tourist's wish list yet.

“I really was not expecting the scenery to be that much attractive. Now I want to go on a trip across Latin America,” was another excited movie-goer's response.

The final movie titled: 'Central Station', directed by Walter Salles who is also the director of 'Motorcycle Diaries' was more than just a representation of Brazil. Being piece of art, 'Central Station', like the other movies in the film festival line-up, was a masterpiece of big screen and a real treat for the movie enthusiasts.

And while weekdays could only attract audience to fill 50 per cent of the auditorium's capacity, weekends showed full capacity attendance. The final aspect of the movies was their sheer complexity. They were neither simple, nor single dimensional. Within a movie they touched multiple themes and gave the audience a chance to mull the same number of aspects they touched.

From complex love triangles to human renditions of Greek mythology and violence filled World War-II stories, the festival touched both real and fantastic themes.

Needless to say, the film festival has set high standards in film-making and viewing as well as introduced the magnificence of Brazilian culture. A good precedence has been set and one hopes it will continue.—Ayesha Shahid