German embassy hosts film screening

The German embassy hosted a screening of Zug in Die Freiheit (Liberty Train – Next Stop Freedom) at the embassy auditorium.

First Secretary Christine Rosenberger, who is also head of the press and cultural section, welcomed guests to the screening.

“These days we are commemorating 30 years of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The German embassy has decided to have two film screenings on the subject, the first is this documentary, set in Prague in September 1989, weeks before the collapse of the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall,” she said.

The film traced the journey of refugees from East Germany through communist territory into West Germany. The West German embassy in Prague became the centre of the world’s political stage as refugees climbed over the boundary walls, turning the fenced embassy compound into a vast refugee camp.

The first person accounts, interviews and footage from the period made the film come alive as the audience saw the transformation of the embassy grounds into a refugee camp and accompanied the refugees on a harrowing train journey to freedom.

Japanese embassy’s cultural activities

The Embassy of Japan is organising a range of cultural activities under the banner of ‘A Month of Japanese Culture’ starting tomorrow (Thursday).

To kick start the series, Assistant Professor Satoshi Naiki, an expert on the Gandhara civilisation from Kyoto University who is currently leading a Japanese archaeological mission in Pakistan, will deliver a lecture on the Legacy of Gandhara at the Centre for Culture and Development.

This will be followed by the Japan Festival 2019 at the National University of Modern Languages on Nov 19. The festival will be inaugurated by Ambassador of Japan Kuninori Matsuda.

The festival will begin with a Japanese Language Speech Contest among students from the Japanese language department, followed by cultural performances including a kendo demonstration, Taiko performance, karate and judo demonstrations, ninja performance and bonsai and ikebana demonstrations.

Ambassador Matsuda said: “Since Japan and Pakistan share many cultural similarities, these festivities will certainly provide a window of opportunity for the Pakistani people to discover many facets of Japanese culture and its age-old traditions.”

An exhibition of photographs will be inaugurated on Nov 21 at the PNCA while Japanese films will be screened at the Islamabad Club between Nov 22 and Nov 27. On Nov 24, a concert will also be held at the PNCA auditorium.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2019