Research and Publication Centre

Filmbàr screening of Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Distant (2002) at Research and Publication Centre (RPC) on Friday, June 12, 2026 at 5:00 pm.

Mahmut, a 40 year old independent photographer, is a "village boy made good" at least professionally in the big city - Istanbul in this case. After his wife leaves him, he falls into an existential crisis. Then comes his cousin Yusuf, who left his native village after a local factory closed down, effectively unemploying over half the local men. He looks to Istanbul for salvation: a job on board a ship sailing abroad, at once exciting and crucial to supporting his family in the desperately poor village. The distance between the two men is apparent at once, and becomes increasingly pronounced. Whereas Mahmut is adjusted to big city life and suffers from many of its neuroses, Yusuf is a lonely, eccentric country worker with annoying nervous and hygienic habits, and a sick mother back home he must somehow support. This intimate drama was filmed in the director's apartment in Istanbul, using all his furniture, appliances, rooms, car and so on as the film's props. The actor playing Yusuf is actually the director's real-life cousin, and the actor playing Mahmut is an actual friend, a non-professional actor.

The screening will be followed by a discussion over tea. Lift is operational.

Adress: Research and Publication Centre (RPC), 2nd Floor, 65 Main Boulevard Gulberg, Lahore (next to Standard Chartered Bank, above Indesign showroom).

Rashed Rahman
Editor, Pakistan Monthly Review (PMR) (link: pakistanmonthlyreview.com)
Director, Research and Publication Centre (RPC) (on Facebook)

Link to my Column "Trump's constant goalpost shifting" in Business Recorder, June 2, 2026: https://rashed-rahman.blogspot.com/2026/06/business-recorder-column-june-2-2026.html
Rashed Rahman
Editor, Pakistan Monthly Review (PMR) (link: pakistanmonthlyreview.com)
Director, Research and Publication Centre (RPC) (on Facebook)

Business Recorder Column June 2, 2026 Trump’s constant goalpost shifting Rashed Rahman Every day, the news from Washington about the Iran war is wearingly the same. President...

The June 2026 issue of Pakistan Monthly Review (PMR) is out. Link: pakistanmonthlyreview.com

Contents:
1. Ashraf Jehangir Qazi: A War Lost or Won: A New World emerging?
2.Zongyuan Zoe Lin: What the Iran War means for China.
3. Rashed Rahman: The advent of capitalism and its impact on shaping the world.
4. Notes from the Editors (of Monthly Review).
5. Vijay Prashad: Could Capitalism have thrived without Colonialism? – I.
6. Sara Kazmi: The Marxist Punjabi Movement: Language and Literary Radicalism in Pakistan – I.
7. Roshaan Khattak and Thomas Jeffrey Milley: The spiral of violence in Balochistan.
8. Alea F: I was incarcerated for attending Aurat March on International Women’s Day.
9. Cuba: The Bay of Pigs Invasion 65 years later.
10 & 11. Letters to the Editor: (i) Letter fromCuba; (ii) Urdu letter on Left Movement.

Rashed Rahman
Editor, Pakistan Monthly Review (PMR) (link: pakistanmonthlyreview.com)
Director, Research and Publication Centre (RPC) (on Facebook)

Filmbar screening of François Truffaut's Day for Night (1973) at the Research and Publication Centre (RPC) on Friday, June 5, 2026 at 5:00 pm.
In Nice, the Studios La Victorine is producing the film "Je Vous Presente Pamela" about a French man who marries the English Pamela in England and brings his wife to France to introduce her to his parents. However, his father and Pamela fall in love with each other and she leaves her husband to live with him. The producer Bertrand and the director Ferrand invite British Julie Baker, who had a nervous breakdown and married her Dr. Nelson, for the role of Pamela. During shooting, the cast and crew are lodged in the Hotel Atlantic and Bertrand and Ferrand have to deal with problems with the stars Severine, an aging actress with drinking problems that affect her performance; the immature, spoiled and needy Alphonse, and Julie who is emotionally unstable. But in the end, they succeed in completing the film.

Rashed Rahman
Editor, Pakistan Monthly Review (PMR) (link: pakistanmonthlyreview.com)
Director, Research and Publication Centre (RPC) (on Facebook)

Link to my Column "On the verge of peace?" in Business Recorder, May 26, 2026: https://rashed-rahman.blogspot.com/2026/05/business-recorder-column-may-26-2026.html
Rashed Rahman
Editor, Pakistan Monthly Review (PMR) (link: pakistanmonthlyreview.com)
Director, Research and Publication Centre (RPC) (on Facebook)

Business Recorder Column May 26, 2026 On the verge of peace? Rashed Rahman Indications from both sides of the US-Iran war point to progress towards an interim agreement to br...

Link to my Column "Cuba next?" in Business Recorder, May 19, 2026: https://rashed-rahman.blogspot.com/2026/05/business-recorder-column-may-19-2026.html
Rashed Rahman
Editor, Pakistan Monthly Review (PMR) (link: pakistanmonthlyreview.com)
Director, Research and Publication Centre (RPC) (on Facebook)

Business Recorder Column May 19, 2026 Cuba next? Rashed Rahman The US is intensifying its long standing campaign of collective punishment of the Cuban people for daring to re...

Filmbar screening of Zoltán Fábri's The Fifth Seal (1976) at Research and Publication Centre (RPC) on Friday, May 22, 2026 at 5:00 pm.
Set in Budapest, 1944, towards the end of World War II, it tells the story of a group of friends hanging out in a bar owned by Béla, drinking, talking and having as good a time as they can, trying to stay out of trouble. Miklós a watchmaker, László, a book seller and János, a carpenter, are one night joined by a fifth man, who asks an innocent question: "Just imagine you are about to die, but you will be reincarnated in to one of two people; a slave or the rich master. The slave suffers under the master. He has his tongue and an eye removed and his wife and child are killed. He goes on living knowing he is a good person, as he never committed such appalling, sadistic acts on another like his master has done. The rich master has no moral qualms about it at all. He doesn't think what he did was wrong; the slave needed to be punished. You have the choice, whether to be a poor and righteous slave or be a rich and corrupt master." This hypothetical question changes their lives.

The screening will be followed by a discussion over tea. Lift is operational.

Address: Research and Publication Centre (RPC), 2nd Floor, 65 Main Boulevard Gulberg, Lahore (next to Standard Chartered Bank, above Indesign showroom).

Rashed Rahman
Editor, Pakistan Monthly Review (PMR) (link: pakistanmonthlyreview.com)
Director, Research and Publication Centre (RPC) (on Facebook)
Email: [email protected]
Cell: 0302 8482737

Filmbar screening of Věra Chytilová's Daisies (1966) at the Research and Publication Centre (RPC) on Friday, May 15, 2026 at 5:00 pm.

Marie 1 and Marie 2 don't give a hoot about traditional morals and social norms and seduce the men who are attracted to their carefree exuberance – mostly older men – with ease. They prey on their suitors' purses and simply try to enjoy any fun that comes their way. Their escapades are a game played by the two boastful Maries as they plunge blindly from one adventure to the next. But their 'depraved' nature – as highlighted at the end by a moral underlined by Vera Chytilova – is just an innocent rebellion against the backdrop of a troubled modern world. The protagonists of 'Sedmikrásky' – embodied by the amateur actresses Jitka Cerhova and Ivana Karbanova – serve primarily as a demonstration of female liberation in the sense of the feminist currents of the time. The two Maries stand – albeit in an extreme form – for women struggling to survive in a man's world.

The screening will be followed by an informal discussion over tea. Lift is operational.

Address: Research and Publication Centre (RPC), 2nd Floor, 65 Main Boulevard Gulberg, Lahore (next to Standard Chartered Bank, above Indesign showroom).

Rashed Rahman

Editor, Pakistan Monthly Review (PMR) (link: pakistanmonthlyreview.com)

Director, Research and Publication Centre (RPC) (on Facebook)

Email: [email protected]

Cell: 0302 8482737

Filmbar screening of Jamil Dehlavi's Towers of Silence (1975) at Research and Publication Centre (RPC) on Friday, May 8, 2026.

The film tells the story of a Pakistani boy's experience and obsession with death and the Zoroastrian rituals of purification and regeneration, showing how he develops into a young revolutionary and confronts love, religious conflict, and his own death.

All friends are welcome Lift is operational. Tea will be served after the screening.

Address: Research and Publication Centre (RPC), 2nd Floor, 65 Main Boulevard Gulberg, Lahore (next to Standard Chartered Bank, above Indesign showroom).

Rashed Rahman

Editor, Pakistan Monthly Review (link: pakistanmonthlyreview.com)

Director, Research and Publication Centre (RPC) (on Facebook)

Email: [email protected]

Cell: +92 302 8482737

The May 2026 issue of Pakistan Monthly Review (PMR) is out. Link: pakistanmonthlyreview.com

Contents:

1. Richard Rubenstein: The Empire vs Iran: Which side are you on?

2. Roshaan Khattak: Unfinished Revolutions.
3. Faiz Ahmed Faiz: Safarnama Cuba (Urdu).
4. Fatima Shahzad: Faiz in Cuba: A revolutionary poet’s account and why it still matters.
5. Vijay Prashad: Cuba is not Afraid.
6. Tricontinental: Culture as a Weapon of Struggle: Southern African Liberation.
7. From the PMR Archives: February 2019: Rashed Rahman: Creeping Coup in Venezuela (Urdu).

Rashed Rahman
Editor, Pakistan Monthly Review (PMR) (link: pakistanmonthlyreview.com)
Director, Research and Publication Centre (RPC) (on Facebook)
Email: [email protected]
Cells: +92 302 8482737 & +92 333 4216335