On January 8, in Pune, India, Pakistani short film “The Painterist” was awarded “The Best Experimental Short Film” at the fifth annual Buddha International Film Festival which was held in Pune, India. The festival is known for commemorating the universal principles of Gautama Buddha, whose humanitarian message is replete with wisdom, kindness, patience, generosity and compassion.
The film stars Adnan Bashir Khan, Kainat Munir and Aliza Javed, while its story revolves around a poor artist whose paintings get sold by the curator of an art gallery under a different name. The short film deals with the lesser known reality of credit-stealing from an artist. Written by Zahid Rai, “The Painterist” has been produced by Azim Ahmed and directed by Khalid Hasan Khan.
It is basically a short experimental film dealing with a concept, which is an unfortunate reality of today’s world; of depriving an author, artist or broadly speaking, the creator from his or her credit and compensation or both, by stealing his or her work.
This fictional biopic story is about the life of a fine artist, whose name is Shahid. Being an unknown painter, he sells his artwork to a dilettante lady, Tanya, for a fistful of money, but one day comes to know that he was selling his soul! Intellectual piracy is motif of this micro-short film.
‘The Painterist’ acknowledges and appreciates the artistic ardor of those creators who have been ripped off by art-stealing pirates, credit-hijackers in this bandit territory, but their passion is untouchable.
Khalid Hasan Khan, the filmmaker of ‘The Painterist’ said that “he coined the word ‘Painterist’ by blending painter with artist”. He further said that an award from the Buddha International Film Festival was an honour for the Pakistani nation.
“Our country is the cradle of thousands of years old Buddhist art and culture. The ancient icons of the Gandhara civilization in Peshawar, Swat, and Taxila are part of our glorious cultural legacy,” he said.
