City hosts first Lollywood event

It is hoped the festival will bring Lollywood films to more people

Europe's first Pakistani film festival is getting under way in Glasgow.

The Pehlee Dharkan Festival will include classic films, documentaries and posters from the Pakistani film industry, nicknamed Lollywood.

The festival, which begins on Tuesday, is being held in Glasgow because the city plays host to Scotland's largest Pakistani community.

Its director, Alina Mizra, hopes it will reach an even wider audience over the next fortnight.

Among the documentaries being shown is one entitled Reinventing the Taliban.

Film posters

The festival will also show feature films, short films and traditional Lollywood movies.

It is opening with an exhibition of Lollywood film posters and another which features Pakistani truck art.

The Indian film industry, which is known as Bollywood, is the most productive in the world, while Lollywood - which derives its nickname from its base in Lahore - produces about 30 films a year.

However, it is a sizeable industry and Ms Mizra said the organisers have laid on a strong programme.

She said: "For our first festival it is quite ambitious. The festival name is Pehlee Dharkan, which means the first heartbeat and certainly it's the first heartbeat in terms of the whole content of the film festival for the whole of Europe."