Director: James Ivory / Screenplay: Ruth Prawar Jhabvalla - based on her book.

Awards: British Academy Award: Adapted Screenplay

Cast: Julie Christie, Greta Scacchi, Shashi Kapoor, Christopher Cazenove, Nickolas Grace, Jennifer Kendal, Julian Glover, Susan Fleetwood, Madhur Jaffrey, Zakir Hussain, Ratna Pathak Shah, Patrick Godfrey, Barry Foster.

Heat and Dust is a 1983 British historical romantic drama film with a screenplay by Ruth Prawaer Jhabvala based on her novel by the same name (written in 1975). The film formed part of a cycle of productions which emerged during the first half of the 1980s, reflecting Britain's growing interest in the British Raj. It moves effortlessly between the past and the present examining two very different women both of whom ultimately take the same route.

In 1982, an Englishwoman named Anne (Julie Christie) begins an investigation into the fate of her great-aunt Olivia (Greta Scacchi) whose letters and the diary she has inherited. Anne's search brings her to India, where the story of Olivia's life is told in flashbacks. The plot follows two intertwined stories. The first is set in British India of the 1920s, and deals with an illicit affair between Olivia, the beautiful young wife of a British Colonial official, and an Indian Nawab. The second, set in 1982, deals with Anne, Olivia's great-niece, who travels to India, hoping to find out about her great-aunt's life, and while there, gets involved herself with a married Indian man…

The Merchant-Ivory team - American director James Ivory and Bombay born producer Ismail Merchant - bring Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's "Booker" prize winning novel to the big screen. An impecably produced film with superb costumes, sets, a memorable score by Richard Robbins and dazzling cinematography by Walter Lassally.This was Merchant-Ivory's first film made on a lavish scale (though on a still fairly limited budget) and proved to be a springboard in helping them on to bigger budgets and far more acclaim with their adaptations of Henry James, E. M. Forster, Evan S. Connell, Edward Albee and Kazuo Ishiguro- all of which soon followed this success.

The Impossible (2012) - Thailand / USA

Director: J. A. Bayona / Screenplay: Sergio G. Sánchez & María Belón

Awards: Academy Award Nomination: Best Actress (Naomi Watts)

Cast: Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, Tom Holland, Samuel Joslin, Marta Etura, Oaklee Pendergast

An emotionally realistic film, it is extremely compelling in its epic recreation of the catastrophic Indian Ocean 'Tsunami' -that hit Thailand the day after Christmas in 2004...one of the worst natural disasters in history.

The screenplay charts the true story of a British couple (Ewan McGregor & Naomi Watts) and their three sons (Tom Holland, Oaklee Pendergast and Samuel Joslin) who arrive to spend their Christmas vacation at a peaceful beach resort.

Their idyllic holiday is shattered when a Tsunami hits the resort. In the chaos of the giant wave and swirling waters the family gets separated. The mother and her eldest son are swept away by the waves and she is seriously injured by debris. They manage to find their way to a makeshift hospital where her injuries almost prove fatal and she has to be operated upon.Meanwhile her husband and their other two sons manage to survive the onslaught. He puts the two young boys in the care of a family and goes in search of his wife and son...

Will the family be reunited or is tragedy in store for them as it proved to be for tbousands of victims?

Director: Yimou Zhang

Screenplay: Zhihong Bian, Yimou Zhang  & Nan Wu

Academy Award Nomination:Best Costume Design

Cast: Chow Yun-Fat, Gong Li, Jay Chou, Ye Liu, Dahong Li, Man Li

If you like to be dazzled, this movie is your treat. The music and script richly augment the drama. The artworks are endless mosaics without repeating. This is China in all the pageantry, in an age before the ages. Everything is in accordance with physical laws, while mystery and intrigue are the principal game...

‘The Curse of the Golden Flower’ was the most opulent, visually astonishing film to grace movie theatres . It fused high drama and romantic intrigue with the best of contemporary martial arts. Set in the lavish and breathtakingly colorful world hidden from the eyes of mere mortals, a tale of a royal family divided against itself builds to a mythic climax as lines are crossed, trust is betrayed, and family blood is spilled in the quest for redemption and revenge...

Set in the late 10th century, during China’s 10th. Century Tang Dynasty, Curse of the Golden Flower follows the complex and tragic power struggles that occur within the Forbidden City.

The Emperor (Chow Yun-Fat), who has just returned in time for the annual Chrysanthemum Festival, rules both the palace and his family with an iron fist and unpredictable will. The Empress (Gong Li) chafes under the Emperor’s disdainful, patronizing authority, as their marriage is a purely political one. What’s more, she’s afflicted with a strange ailment that, despite the constant attention of her husband’s physician, has suddenly grown worse.

The Emperor’s three sons by his previous wife only add to the strife. The oldest son, Crown Prince Wan (Liu Ye), is in line to succeed his father, though he is little in the way of a ruler. He yearns to be free of the palace and his father’s rule, as well as the attention of the Empress, with whom he has had an illicit affair. The middle son, Jai (Jay Chou), seems to be the Emperor’s favorite, having served many years in the military, but his close relationship with the Empress clouds his loyalties. The youngest son, Yu (Qin Junjie), is on the cusp of manhood, and seems completely oblivious to all of the familial turmoil surrounding him...

As the Chrysanthemum Festival approaches, and the multitudes of palace staff busy themselves with the preparations, the pressure and hatred continues to heat up within the family’s quarter. The Empress’s condition continues to worsen until a mysterious spy confirms her worst suspicions: the Emperor has slowly been poisoning her, ostensibly so that he can remove her influence from the palace and gain her family’s wealth and power. Realizing her back is up against the wall, the Empress begins to plot her move against the seemingly omnipresent Emperor, whose eyes, ears, and assassins are in every corner of the country. But what of the princes? Who will side with her, and who will betray her? And who is the mysterious woman who alerted her to the poison?

Duration: 1 hr 54 min

Director: Mira Nair

Screenplay: Sabrina Dhawan

Award: Venice Film Festival: Best Picture Golden Lion Award

Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Lillete Dubey, Shefali Shah, Vijay Raaz, Tillotama Shome, Vasundhara Das, Parvin Dabas, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Rajat Kapoor, Randeep Hooda, Roshan Seth,Soni Razdan, Ram Kapoor & Renuka

Monsoon wedding is an International co production invoving production companies from several countries.Though shot on location in Delhi , it can be considered an Indo-US-French-Dutch Co-Production reflecting its diverse funding and production sources.

Mira Nair plunges the audience straight into the joys and chaos of a Subcontinent wedding where things get tense among the family members when hidden agendas, secrets, and fears threaten to cause disruption and destroy family relationships for good.

Set in present day Delhi, this comedy-drama focuses on the Punjabi Verma family – led by the harassed father (Naseeruddin Shah) and mother (Lillete Dubey) - who are about to celebrate their daughter's marriage. With days to go, the final preparations are chaotically put in place amidst the arrival of the extended family.

The main theme is the healing power of unconditional love- the struggle between modern and traditional ways is one of the primary undercurrents ...the director cleverly uses the wedding as a guide to examine the stresses and strains that families can face- based in any part of the world!

Mira Nair directs with unflagging energy, style and pizzazz, periodically whisking her crew out into the teeming streets for external locations and using the real-life crowds as a seamlessly integrated real backdrop for her family drama. The screen is filled with blooming marigolds, blossoming romances... but every time "Monsoon Wedding" starts to seem candy-coated, Nair mixes romantic optimism and conflict, with the movie mirroring the violent weather season during which it is set...

• In collaboration with Alliance Francaise

Director/ Screen Play: Celine Song

Awards: Academy Award Nominations: Best Picture, Original Screenplay

Cast: Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, John Magaro, Moon Seung-ah, Leem Seung-min, Yun Ji-hye

'The Korean belief of "in-yeon" says if you meet someone- even briefly- it means you also met in a past life, and lovers are people who have met over and over in their past lives...'

A boy and a girl- 12-year old school friends in South Korea- develop a crush on each other. However, she immigrates to Canada with her parents and they lose touch with each other. Twelve years later - she (Greta Lee) is living in New York while he (Teo Yoo) has finished military school. By chance they reconnect via Facebook and start chatting on Skype- although after sometime- feeling her focus on becoming a writer is waning, she suggests they move on with their lives...

Time goes by and she is now a playwright married to a Jewish-American writer (John Magaro), while he is in China learning Mandarin, and with a girlfriend. He visits New York on the pretext of a vacation, but in reality to meet her. They connect again, and she eventually introduces him to her husband . During a conversation, the three characters each discover what the universe planned for them, and what plans it has for their future...

A deeply felt humane film, it has deep currents running through each layer ,which first-time director Celine Song presents in a very simple matter-of-fact manner. The perceptive screenplay focuses on how culture plays such a huge role in a person's psyche. The superbly shot film has many moments captured during the outdoors in New York ,as well as in the end at the restaurant ,where the camera placement captures the three characters in both isolation ,as well as with a strong sense of intimacy...

• In collaboration with Alliance Francaise

'Baaji' -

Director: Saqib Malik

Rating: Adults Only (no one under 18 allowed)

Screenplay: Irfan Ahmed Urfi

Cast: Meera, Amna Ilyas, Osman Khalid Butt, Ali Kazmi, Nisho, Mohsin Abbas Haider, Nayyar Ejaz, Mehwish Hayat, Aamir Qureshi, Angeline Malik, Ali Azmat, Mustafa Qureshi, Humayun Saeed, Sania Saeed

Irfan Ahmed Urfi's female-centric screenplay revolves around the relationship between two very different women who bond as friends but jealousy and intrigue shatters their friendship resulting in tragedy..every dream has a price !

A poor but ambitious young woman (Amna Ilyas) -from the 'other side of the tracks' (the old city in Lahore)- by chance becomes an assistant to a glamorous movie queen (Meera) whose popularity is seriously on the wane.

Desperate to regain her position as star, she accepts an offer as the leading lady in a film by a hot new director (Osman Khalid Butt) just returned from America. Both women fall for him leading to a love triangle that wrings itself into a frenzy of lust, longing, desire, treachery and ultimately murder.

Amna Ilyas gives a superbly nuanced performance balancing her two very different lives - as the poor woman living in a cramped house in the old city, who transforms into a confident do-gooder thanks to her new job as friend, confidante and advisor to her rich benefactress ,while living in a huge modern mansion. Lollywood star Meera, making a comeback on the big screen, easily captures the star quality of a famous screen diva, as she moves stealthily across the screen stunningly dressed in high fashion. The entire cast - many appearing in small cameo parts - provide superb support to the two main characters. The film incorporates two memorable classic songs - ''Yeh Aaj Mujh Ko Kya Hua'' & ''Oh, Don't be Silly' - giving them a modern upbeat tempo.

The film's most memorable moment comes during the rap ''item'' number - ''Gangster Guriya'' - danced by actress-singer Mehwish Hayat, while many famous Pakistani celebrities from the world of fashion, music, television and cinema make cameo appearances.

Saqib Malik, a long-time movie buff and a successful director of music videos, makes his celebrated debut as a film director. The plot incorporates many vivid movie-going memories from past films and superbly placed contemporary Pakistani pop culture. The film has been recognised at numerous International film festivals and some of the top Award platforms in Pakistan.

Non- Members: For further information contact ASG Office: 051-2802343 Thursday- Saturday : 11 am- 2 pm

Duration: 2 hr 5 min

Director: Guy Hamilton

Screenplay: Richard Maibaum & Tom Mankiewicz, based on the novel by Ian Fleming

Cast: Roger Moore, Christopher Lee, Britt Ekland, Maud Adams, Herve Villechaize, Clifton James, Richard Loo, Soon-Tek Oh, Marc Lawrence, Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell, Desmond Llewelyn, James Cossins,

This ninth screen outing of James Bond is set in the face of the 1973 energy crisis when OAPEC, led by King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, proclaimed an oil embargo targeting nations (among them Britain and the United States) that had supported Israel during the Yom Kippur War.

Bond is sent to retrieve the Solex Agitator, a breakthrough technological solution to contemporary energy shortages, which has been stolen by the dwarf henchman (Herve Villechaize) of the enigmatic assassin, Scaramanga (Christopher Lee), who is also known as the ''Man with the Golden Gun'', and can only be recognized by the three nipples on his chest. Bond and Scaramanga finally come face-to-face during the climactic duel involving a golden bullet.

The film reflects the then-popular martial arts film craze, with several kung fu action set pieces and a predominantly Asian location, being set in Thailand, Hong Kong and Macau.

Please Note:

The film starts at 6.30 pm sharp. No entries after doors close. Please switch off mobiles before entry, Limited seating.

For further information contact ASG Office Thurs-Sat: 051 2802343, e-mail: asianstudyg@gmail.com/ Online: asianstudygroup.org

Director: Terence Young

Screenplay: Richard Maibaum & Berkely Mather, based on the novel by Ian Fleming

Cast: Sean Connery, Daniela Bianchi, Pedro Armendariz, Lotte Lenya, Robert Shaw, Bernard Lee, Eunice Gayson, Walter Gotell, Lois Maxwell

BAFTA Award: Ted Moore for Cinematography

Second in the long-running series of spy films based on Ian Fleming's pulp novels about the exploits of British Secret Service agent James Bond with code name 007.

In this episode Bond (Sean Connery) is sent to assist in the defection of a Soviet consulate clerk (Daniela Bianchi) in Turkey, where the international organization SPECTRE plans to avenge Bond's killing of one of their evil agents. Helping him in the mission is his counterpart (Pedro Armendariz) in Turkey while the antagonists trying to kill them are the highly feared Soviet counter-intelligence high ranking agent Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya) and her trained assassin (Robert Shaw).

Spectacular action set pieces, the exotic locations in Istanbul, the famous Bond music theme and the colourful characters all combine to make this one of the best Bond films.

• In collaboration with Serena Hotel, Islamabad

For further information contact ASG Office Thurs-Sat: 051 2802343, e-mail: asianstudyg@gmail.com/ Online: asianstudygroup.org

Duration: 1 hr 35 min

Director: Abbas Kiarostami

Screenplay: Abbas Kiarostami

Cast: Homayoun Ershadi, Abdolrahman Bagheri, Afshin Khorshid Bakhtiari, Safar Ali Moradi, Mir Hossein Noori, Elham Imani, Ahmad Ansari

Award: Cannes Film Festival - Palme d'Or

This is a film with a meditative beat to it as the story unfolds in a deliberately slow but piercing manner. It is a simple, serene and occasionally humourous film about a subject that is complex, emotional but usually treated with solemnity!

An affluent man (Homayoun Ershadi) drives around the outskirts of Tehran in a Ranger Rover looking for a stranger to whom he offers a fee to perform a shocking function. The driver interviews a security guard who gathers and sells plastic bags, a timid Kurdish soldier, an Afghan seminarian who quotes from the Quran, and finally an old Turkish taxidermist. Initially it is not made clear what the driver wants done and gradually we discover what his requirement is. The men talk and in the talking, as well as in the eloquent silences, life takes on precious appeal.

The film's leisurely shots of the driver's car twisting through the wastelands outside Tehran, crisscrossing a barren industrial landscape of construction sites and shanty towns initially has a harsh effect which gradually segues to a landscape that becomes green with foliage and which takes on a soothing effect reflecting the various moods of the driver as we get totally caught up in the protagonist's psychological and ethical dilemma.

Director: Yojiro Takita

Screenplay: Kundo Koyama

Cast: Masahiro Motoki, Tsutimu Yamazaki, Ryoko Hirosue, Kazuko Yoshlyuki

Award: Academy Award for Best Foreign Film

A film with such a theme was deemed to be a disaster at the box office. However, the film went on to win many awards!

A young married man returns to his hometown after unsuccessfully wanting to excel at being a cellist. He finds an advertisement for a job "assisting departures". Assuming it to be a job in a travel agency, he goes to the interview and learns that he will be preparing bodies for cremation in a ceremony known as encoffinment. Though reluctant, he is hired on the spot and receives a cash advance. The Japanese stigma against people working with dead bodies makes him ashamed about the job and hides the true nature of it from his wife. Over time, he becomes comfortable with his profession and completes a number of assignments while experiencing the gratitude of the families of the deceased. When he hears about his estranged father's death he is at first angry and refuses to deal with his father's body. However, he relents and insists on dressing the body for the funeral himself.

The film's foremost theme focuses mainly on the humanity that death brings to the surface and how it strengthens family bonds.

The subject of 'encoffinment' was a highly unusual subject for a Japanese film. The term denotes the preparation of the body of a deceased person and placement of it in a coffin, especially in a ceremonial or ritualistic manner. Despite the importance of death rituals in traditional Japanese culture the subject is considered unclean as everything related to death is thought to be a source of defilement. After coming into contact with the dead, individuals must cleanse themselves through purifying rituals. People who work closely with the dead, such as morticians, are thus considered unclean, and during the feudal era ,those whose work was related to death became untouchables and forced to live in their own hamlets and were discriminated against by wider society. Despite a cultural shift in the last hundred years or so, the stigma of death still has considerable force within Japanese society, and discrimination against the untouchables has continued.