84th Annual Academy Awards: ‘Saving Face’ Wins First Oscar for Pakistan

The 84th Annual Academy Awards were presented in Los Angeles on February 26. They were hosted by comedian Billy Crystal.
“The Artist” bagged five Oscars, including best picture, becoming the first silent movie to win Hollywood's highest honors since the original Oscar ceremony 83 years ago. It is the first silent winner since the First World War saga “Wings,” which was named outstanding picture at the first Oscars in 1929.
In the black-and-white comic melodrama category, the best actor award went to Jean Dujardin and the best director to Michel Hazanavicius.
In a night of few surprises, the other top Oscars went to Meryl Streep for best actress for the movie “The Iron Lady,” Octavia Spencer as supporting actress for “The Help.” In a night where first timers and veterans were recognized, Streep became the fifth actor to win three awards, the previous winners being Jack Nicholson, Ingrid Bergman and Walter Brennan. She is now only a step away to match Katharine Hepburn’s four Oscar record.
Christopher Plummer as supporting actor for “Beginners.” The 82-year-old Plummer became the oldest acting winner ever for his role as an elderly widower who comes out as gay in “Beginners.”
The other wins for “The Artist” were for musical score and art direction. Martin Scorsese's Paris adventure “Hugo” also won five Oscars, all in technical categories. Streep's win was her first Oscar in 29 years, since she won best actress for “Sophie's Choice.” She had lost 12 times in a row since then. Streep also has a supporting-actress Oscar for 1979's “Kramer vs. Kramer.”
Woody Allen won the original Screenplay Oscar for “Midnight In Paris”, about a novelist adrift in a romantic reimagining of 1920s Paris. Seventy-six-year-old Allen has been nominated for an Oscar 25 times and this was his fourth win, who won for directing and screenplay on his 1977 best-picture winner “Annie Hall” and for screenplay on 1986's “Hannah and Her Sisters.”
Allen also is the record-holder for 15 writing nominations, and his three writing Oscars ties the record shared by Charles Brackett, Paddy Chayefsky, Francis Ford Coppola and Billy Wilder.
“The Artist”, nominated in 10 categories, also won Oscars for best original score and best costume design.
“Hugo”, with 11 nominations, won five trophies in the technical categories including the Visual Effects, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Cinematography and Art Direction but the movie failed to win in the key categories.
First Oscar for Pakistan
A Pakistani short movie on the tribulation and courage of victims of acid attacks won a historic trophy at the 2012 Academy Awards, making its codirector Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy the first from the country to win an Oscar. The movie ‘Saving Face’ by Daniel Junge and Chinoy, the first ever Pakistani movie to be nominated for the prestigious award won the Documentary (Short Subject) Academy.
The movie follows British plastic surgeon Dr Mohammad Jawad, who returns to his homeland to help victims of acid burns and performs reconstructive surgeries on survivors. It also follows the story of a woman as she fights to see that the perpetrators of the crime are imprisoned for life.
The documentary, which is filmed across Islamabad, Rawalpindi and the small towns of Punjab, released in the United States in November. It is due to release in the United Kingdom in March, following which it will be released in Pakistan. Chinoy has also received the Emmy award for her documentary Pakistan: Children of the Taliban in 2010.
Other Winners
"A Separation", directed by Asghar Farhadi, became the first Iranian movie to win the best foreign Oscar trophy. Written and directed by Asghar Farhadi, the domestic drama focuses on a couple going through a divorce and touches on traditions, justice, and male-female relationships in modern Iran. "A Separation" was regarded as the front-runner for the foreign language Oscar after sweeping the awards circuit in Europe and the United States. It also garnered an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay but failed to win in that category. It was the second Iranian film to be nominated for an Oscar, and the first to win.
Johnny Depp voiced "Rango" defeated "A Cat in Paris", "Chico & Rita", "Kung Fu Panda 2", "Puss in Boots" to win Gore Verbinski an Oscar in the best animated category.
Movie editing honours went to Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall for "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". "Undefeated", by TJ Martin, Dan Lindsay and Rich Middlemas, won the Oscar in the documentary feature category.
"Saving Face", by Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, brought Pakistan its first Oscar in the documentary short category. "Iron Lady" won Mark Coulier and J Roy Helland Oscar trophies in the make-up category. "Man or Muppet" from "The Muppets" won Bret McKenzie a trophy in the original song category.
"The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore" by William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg won in the short movie animated category where as "The Shore" by Terry George and Oorlagh George took home the trophy in the short movie live action category.

Reverse Counting of US Exploitation

Before looking forward at the 21st century, we have to look at the 20th century. The question is who is the conqueror of the 20th century? The answer is Emperor United States. Will the conqueror of the 21st century again be Emperor United States? Time will decide!

However, before proceeding further, we have to review the factors that made the United States the conqueror of the 20th century after becoming a superpower in 1945. Prior to the United States, the sun of the British Empire never set. Its entire colonies got mutated to the United States.

Big Achievements
There are three big achievements because of which the United States became the conqueror of the 20th century:

1. Inventing nuclear bomb and annunciating the phenomenon of its superpower by bombing innocent citizens of Japan.

2. Devising the new method of enslaving people of the world discreetly, instead of openly, and by sloganeering peace, independence, and democracy. The concept of secret or clandestine slavery was devised with utmost shrewdness. Through this method, people's conscience was enslaved to ransack and plunder resources of nations. One can imagine the power of this discreet slavery that in the First World War (1914 to 1917), Germany had to face defeat. Despite this, in 20 years' time, Germany became a superpower and in 1939, it ravaged the entire world. The reason was that in those times, the technique of discreet slavery was not prevalent.

The conquerors of discreet slavery are so inclement that after facing defeat in the Second World War and passing of 65 years, Germany is still a US colony. What to talk of Third World and Muslim nations, prime ministers of developed countries like Japan and Britain first became the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agents, and then took the oath of prime ministership. The French president first became an agent, and then took the oath of presidentship. European countries barring France and Britain, in spite of being developed countries, cannot make nuclear weapons since there is no permission. The job of these developed countries is to assist and support the United States on global platform. The biggest US enemy in the Third World is Muslim countries. Despite making them its slaves, the United States always remains worried for any probable threat of voice for independence. Despite this persecution and slavery, in the 20th century, revolutionaries like Gamal Abdel Nasser, Sukarno, Muammur Gaddafi, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Ayatollah Khomeini stood up to challenge this tyrant. Anyhow, we will not talk much about the 20th century as our topic is the 21st century.

In December 1979, the Soviet Union captured Afghanistan. The United States did not have courage to face the Soviet Union. Therefore, it put across its slaves or puppets of Muslim countries. This Cold War slowly converted into the Third World War, culminating in the Soviet Union's defeat at the hands of Muslim slaves, and master United States.

Order of Nature
The Soviet Union was later disintegrated into 16 divisions. This incident made the United States the conqueror of the 20th century. The United States could have contented on this conquest, and would have freed the suffering masses of the world from the clutches of exploitation, tyranny, injustice, and miseries.

On contrary, the United States opted to become the emperor of the 21st century. It engaged its think tank's entire machinery on this project. With this, the first step was to disintegrate Muslim countries through its enslaved agents, for which the fall of the World Trade Tower in New York was used. The United States invaded Iraq, and then Afghanistan, but in the meantime, Iran's president announced his nuclear power, which created trepidation and fuss in CIA cadres. This was the order of nature aimed to make Muslims the conqueror of the 21st century.

Mysterious Domain
Although this decision is in mysterious domain, but the clairvoyant can visualize it. The life of the United States is hidde n in the parrot of Israel. This parrot is now under target from all directions. The height of US demerit can be measured from the fact that a handful of Hezbollah cadres debunked and thrashed Israel, and the Emperor United States was a silent spectator, along with its technology and satellite capabilities. Now, the question is whether the discreet slavery will continue in the 21st century? For this, we see two groups face-to-face. On one side are the oppressors, and on the other side are the oppressed classes.

We can imagine that the US end will be worse than that of Soviet Union, but we have to see things practically. The United States accumulated wealth through devastation and plunder, which is not a sign of stability. Russian warships getting rusted at sea are indicating that military power is aimless. By 2050, the US fate will reach its logical conclusion. In the 21st century, each country will possess nuclear power, not to terrorize others but to safeguard themselves. There will be no superpower to loot and plunder, and people's dignity and independence will prevail.

Revolt in Egypt

The efforts made by people of Tunisia have at last succeeded. People in this North African country had fallen victim of exploitation and tyranny of a family dynasty for more than three decades. President Zine El Abidine Bin Ali had to flee the country after having accepted his defeat in face of popular protests.

It was one of the African countries, which had accepted and embraced Islam in the seventh century. The western borders of Tunisia are adjacent to Algeria, and in the northeast to Libya. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the coasts of the Medetterian Sea. The countries remained under Islamic occupation until 1870. After that, the country turned into a French colony when the French hatched conspiracies against it.

During the Second World War, Tunisia turned into a war field and was targeted by the Italian and German armies. Though Muslim institutions had nothing to do with the war, they bore the brunt of the war. The country remained under the occupation of Hitler and Mussolini for a long time. Later, it was taken over by the allied forces and it became a French colony yet again.

In 1957 Tunisia became an independent country and France handed over the presidentship of the country to Habib Bourguiba, who ruled the country for about twenty years. Later, physicians advised him that he was no longer in a position to rule the country. Without any protest he peacefully handed over the government to Zaine El Abidine Bin Ali. He turned the country into his own property. The country has a population of approximately 10 million. There is, although, democracy in the country, and Zaine El Abidine Bin Ali had been recognized at its duly elected president.

Large-Scale Rigging
During the 2009 elections, he was declared elected with an overwhelming majority. He secured 90 percent of the total votes cast yet the people were not happy with these results as they felt a large-scale rigging was done in the polls. Since he enjoyed the support of Western countries, one could muster courage enough to dethrone him from power. Encouraged by the blindfolded support of the West, he ruthlessly exploited this prosperous country to fill his own coffers.

It is worth a mention that the per capita income in Tunisia is higher than that of the Middle East and other Islamic countries in Africa. It is 40th in the international list of prosperous countries. Having become disillusioned with the family dynastic rule, the people there decided to bring about true democracy in their country. They revolted against him during 2010, but the army and the police under Zaine El Abidine crushed the revolt mercilessly. Even newspapers got stifled. Every newspaper was ordered to carry the Zaine El Abidine propaganda and publicity in at least 90 percent of their space and carry international reports in the remaining 10 percent.

Oppressive Government
The tyranny of the government increased by the day. At the same time the protest by the people continued to escalate and gain ground because of the sacrifices made by them. People bore every kind of tyranny perpetrated by the government but did not succumb to the oppressive government. At last, the president, along with his family had to flee the country. Though the situation in Tunisia is yet to get normalized and no stable government could be formed because of lack of leadership, it is a certainty that the fugitive president has no hopes to make a come back. If the dares to return, he would be arrested and put in prison. People of Tunisia have issued a red corner notice against him through the Interpol.

It is said that a person gets inspiration by seeing others do a thing. The same is happening is yet another African Islamic country, Egypt. People in Egypt have taken to the streets against the President, Hosni Mumbarak and his dynastic rule. Egypt is a country, which links two continents. It has the largest population in Africa and the Middle East. There are about 80 million people. Amongst them 90 percent are Muslims and ten percent Christians. It i s also one of these countries, which had embraced Islam during the seventh century. It remained an Islamic country until the 18th century, but during 1798, Napoleon took it over for a short span of time. During the 19th century the kingdom of Usmania, made the French army to leave the country. Thereafter the Islamic country had to bear the brunt of the First World War and then the British took it over.

US Intervention
It achieved independence in 1922 and during 1957 it was declared as Islamic Republic of Egypt. It was a rare privilege of the country that it got a stalwart Islamic leader in Abdul Gamal Naser, who made a futile attempt to take on the Zionists. After it was defeated by Israel, Egypt no longer remained an Islamic Republic but turned into a puppet of the United States. After the assassination of President Anwarsadat, Hosni Mubarak took over the reins of the government, a democratic despot.

Since then, he continues to come out successful at every husting and he claims to be the ruler of a democratic country but he is looking after the interests of Israel in the Middle East to the best of his ability. The Muslim populace in the country is not only troubled by the irregularities but are also frustrated with the role played by Egypt in the blockade of Ghaza by Israel. Moreover, after the attack on a church in Alexandria early this year, Christians retaliated against Muslims. This also annoyed people.The Muslim population decided to dethrone the pro-West government of Hosni Mubarak. They organized anti-government demonstrations in Cairo, Alexandria and other Egyptian cities.

These demonstrations are so hugely intense that the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) has advised the family of Hosni Mubarak to leave the country. After that, the son and the daughter-in-law of Hosni Mubarak fled the country. The demonstrations are becoming more intense and the observers believe that he would have to abdicate. If it happens, there would be paradigm shift in the situation in the Middle East and there would be a fresh headache for Israel.