EUFF 2025 leaves for Karachi after screening 9 films in Islamabad
The 4th edition if the European Film Festival (EUFF) 2025 concluded its Islamabad show, screening a total nine movies during the last two day, Friday and Saturday— two on Friday and seven on Saturday. The festival’s next stop is Karachi Film School where the citizens of Pakistan’s largest city, ‘City of Lights’ will have a taste of the European cinema on Nov 15 & 16, 2025.
On the last day, Saturday, although all the seven movies turned out to be a great source of entertainment including Austria’s three short movies (Haba, White Ribbon and Diamond & Narcissus) Ireland’s 2023 film ‘That They May Face the Rising Sun,’ 2021 Belgian family comedy ‘My Dad is a Sausage,’ and 2016 Spanish road movie ‘The Olive Tree,’ the highlight of the day, it turned out, was the Finnish children’s and now of course Islamabad’s kids too, all-time favourite 2024 movie ‘Itty Bitty Princess.’
Around 500 children of different schools of Islamabad including Saya School, Pehli Kiran School System (PKSS), Nova School, Fizza and others attended the screening of ‘Itty Bitty Princess’ and laughed boisterously to watch comedy scenes and humorous situations in the film.
Based on the best-selling picture book series by the Finnish author Hannele Lampela and illustrator Ninka Reittu and with over 700,000 copies sold, the movie follows Itty Bitty, a young girl who is happily living as an only child until her parents announce she is going to have a baby brother.
Unhappy at the prospect of sharing her life and room, she decides she’s had enough. Drawing on the advice of her quirky neighbor, Auntie Jenssen, and with the help of her magical dog, Sausage, and her friend, a neighbor princess, Itty Bitty devises a plan. They go on an adventure to find a fancy princess castle of their own to move into, learning about family, friendship, and the true meaning of home along the way.
The typical characteristics of mischievous characters and leg-pulling among children coupled with the situation created ‘nasty’ and ‘cynical’ neighbours and elderly relatives, brought smiles and evoked laughter at many an instance to the sheer joy of the organizers, EU Delegation in Islamabad and the curator Olomopolo Media’ Executive Director Kanwal Khoosat.
Deputy Head of Mission (DHM) Finland, Elina Ollila described it a great pleasure and success to engage the Pakistani children through the medium of the Finnish movie. Though a ‘very Finnish movie’ by showing smart, adventurous and wild kids, it went well with the local kids and I am happy about it, she said.
Austria’s DHM Hannes Machor also expressed his pleasure at the resounding public response to the European Film Festival. Seeing the world through different lens, sometimes poetic, sometimes critical but is always human and promotes dialogue and understanding among diverse cultures, he said. Ireland’s ambassador Merry O’Neil called the 2021 movie ‘That They May Face the Rising Sun’ one of her favourites as it creates in her a nostalgic feeling and portrays simple, countryside life simple joys, pleasures and challenges of the Irish people in early 1980s and 90s.
