Abu Dhabi to celebrate Saarc Film Festival

Abu Dhabi to celebrate Saarc Film Festival 

BY SHAMILA JAMALUDDIN 

EMBASSIES of the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) countries in the UAE came together on Tuesday to announce their first SAARC Film Festival to be held in the country from March 7 to 11, at the Cultural Foundation in Abu Dhabi. 

Around six films from five SAARC countries are to be shown during this festival from 5pm to 9pm. 

There will be two films from Sri Lanka and one each from Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan. 

At a press conference organised by the Sri Lankan embassy in Abu Dhabi, JMJP Bandara, Sri Lankan Ambassador, said that the principal goal of this initiative is to portray the cultural and historical beauty of the South Asian nations to a wider audience in the UAE. 

"This is just the beginning in which we project our South Asian solidarity," said the Bangladeshi ambassador Mohammed Nazmul Quaunine. 

"It will give us an opportunity to share rich culture and history we have in our region." 

"The main focus is to strengthen solidarity in areas which have no controversies. The legacy and culture of the South Asian nations are almost the same,"" he added. SAARC is an economic and political organisation of eight countries in Southern Asia established in 1985 by India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives and Bhutan and at the Association's 14th summit in 2007, Afghanistan became its eighth member. 

It provides a platform for the peoples of South Asia to work together in a spirit of friendship, trust and understanding and aims to accelerate the process of economic and social development in Member States. 

Moreover, in order to introduce the rich cultural heritage and history of the South Asian nations, the SAARC diplomats in the UAE also expressed their hopes to make the Film festival an annual event in the future with events such as 'SAARC Art' and 'SAARC Cultural Week'. 

Talmiz Ahmed, Ambassador of India said that in a country like the UAE with an over whelming majority of expatriates and in order to expand facilities with UAE and other nationalities such events are important. 

Ambassador of Nepal Arjun B Thapa and Riaz H Bukhari, Deputy Head of Mission, Pakistan Embassy also spoke. 

Subtitled in English, the Film Festival sponsored by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) is open to all and is free.