By DAVE JENNESON

(....longtime NEWS
staffer who describes his film
safari to Pakistan earlier this
year)

We had left Vancouver-36
hours earlier via Seattle,
London and Aman. And
now, as the British Air
Trident taxied across the
runway at Islam Abad In-
ternational Airport, we were
tired.

Stepping off the plane, the
heat seemed to bounce up
off the tarmac and lift one
off the ground. We hung
back from the crowd, letting
the Pakistani nationals and
tourists push through
customs before coming on
with our immense load of
cameras, cases of 16 mm
film, and baggage as well.

Finally, when the airport

was deserted, we wheeled
our stuff up to the low metal
baggage counter and the
gang of white uniformed
customs men_ standing
behind. They gave us and
our load a puzzled look and
as we started hailing out our
papers, I realized the first
hitch had developed - the
customs men had not
reeeived a letter from the
Ministry of Information and
Public Broadcasting
notifying them of our arrival.

Consequently, although
they seemed to believe that
we were on a bona fide
filming mission, there was no
way on earth we could pass
the barriers with all this
camera equipment without
the sponsoring letter. Phone
calls were made in the heat
of the Pakistani afternoon,
the letter was promised, but
it did not arrive. I laid down
on one of the baggage

counters and smoked to stay
awake.

Thus was the introduction
of Aurora Film Co. to
Pakistan. We had arrived,
producer Nizar Damji,
director/cameraman Rob
Allen and myself, the writer,
to shoot the highlights to a
one hour documentary of the
Afghan refugees, and the
history and culture of the
Pathan tribesmen in general.

If you read the script of
“The Tribes of War", you
could visualize what a
beaufiful film it would be.
Over the next eight days we
had plenty of time to read
the script, since British Air
had unwittingly sent the
sound equipment, plus the
entire wardrobes of Rob and
Nizar, to points unknown.

The British Air office in
Rawalpindi was lazily sen-
ding telexes out, as if they
were searching for a lost
handbag. Our mornings
were taken up with the eight
mile taxi ride from the Hotel
Islamabad to the British Air
office to engage in
screaming matches with the
manager there, trying to
convince him that we were
on a tight shooting schedule
and that every day lost was
costing Aurora Films a lot of
money. Finally we realized
that we had to start shooting,
with or without sound, and
the ambitious first script
would now be impossible
even to consider in the time
remaining.

Between bouts of
dysentary and malaria in
sweltering hotel rooms I
managed to rewrite the
movie for the time we had
left, and we departed for

Peshwar to start shooting.

Three days later British Air
kindly forwarded the sound

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Soviet soldier,

Afghan freedom fighters draw a bead with home-made
weapons in this scene from the Tribes of War.

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In a strange way the delay
had proved fortunate;
having taken this time to
soak up the culture, talk to
government officials and
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