LAHORE, March 8: The five-day Spanish film festival will close at the NCA on Tuesday (today) with the screening of Flores De Otro Mundo (Flowers from Another World) - the bitter-sweet tale of relationships, which are forced to deal with circumstances beyond their control.

Punjab Governor Khalid Maqbool is expected to attend the closing ceremony. On the fourth day of the film festival on Monday, a real taste of Spain's rural life was given to the audience in the form of Tasio.

Acclaimed by international critics as one of the most important Spanish films of the 1980s, Tasio is a vibrant portrait of a young boy that spans 30 years of his life.

Set in Basque, a beautiful, mountainous region of Navarra, Tasio was director Montxo Armendariz's 1984 debut feature film, which established a non-allegorical genre of film making in Spain.

After a number of acclaimed short films, veteran producer Elmas Querejeta invited Montxo to make a movie. Tasio was an answer to the director's delicate observation of the world of a rural charcoal worker in his own native region of Navarra.

The release of Tasio in the mid-80s instantly impacted the Spanish cinema that was restricted under the dictatorial Franco regime. The 60s and 70s Spanish cinema under the Franco regime was forced to often speak in metaphors or allegories that demanded the audience to see behind the apparent characters.

With Tasio came an about turn of the Spanish cinema. There were no political under currents; no hidden messages to be deciphered. On the contrary, the movie was as simple as its screenplay: it asked people to look at a man's life as being representative of nothing more than that life itself.

In the movie we see Tasio as a boy, heading off to work instead of attending school to support his family. By the time he hits his teenage years, he is working full time as a charcoal maker.

The movie revolves around the richness and complexity of this man, who is trying to live life within horizons that might appear severely limited to others.

The movie's strong point is the coal maker's unwavering commitment to tradition and family values. Tasio's marriage to Paulina and the birth of their daughter, Elisa, are visibly uneventful happenings in a small village.

It is only when Tasio faces the animosity of the forest guard that the movie's message of adhering to personal freedom becomes clear. Till the last scene Tasio is shown not to give in to authority, evoking the viewer's empathy for his simple way of life.

Tasio is a non adventurous, simple movie offering a clear, non-judgmental approach to life. Some might find Montxo Armendariz' theme tedious and a bit boring. But the character of Tasio shows people not yet destroyed by life, who live quiet lives and who make freedom, love, landscapes and the simplest of things the reasons for their existence.

The festival was organized by the NCA in collaboration with the Spanish embassy. As a prelude to the setting up of the department of Film and Television at the NCA by the end of this year, the holding of the festival shows the Spanish government's interest in this important step towards promoting this medium.

The embassy's interest was evident in the special arrangements it made to invite the Spanish film expert, Don Oscar Peyrou, to travel to Pakistan and conduct a workshop at the NCA.

Simultaneous to the festival, the workshop held at the Multimedia Lecture Theatre at the NCA, covered the Spanish cinema followed by discussions at the end of each session.

Many renowned film and television professionals like, Usman and Samina Peerzada, Feryal Ali Gauhar, Sajjad Gul, Tanveer Rehman and many others willingly took part in them.

The launch of the Film and Television department is an ambitious project of the NCA and will start accepting enrolment by the end of this year. "Besides the specific support of Mr Wolfgang Laengsfeld, the former vice-president of the College of Film and Television in Munich, Germany, in preparing the department's curricula, the government of Pakistan has also been very helpful," claimed Wajiha Raza, coordinator for the Film and TV department.