yamunanagar leslee udwin a ukbased film director was the centre of attraction at the 4th haryana international film festival at dav college for girls in yamunanagar on saturday she said she was honoured that the festival was kickstarting with her film west is west interacting with the students she said it took her four years to make the movie a sequel to her awardwinning film east is east sharing her experiences she said a filmmaker has to face lot of problems while depicting reality screening of my film was not allowed in america as it was to be shot in pakistan she said but that doesnt deter her filmmaking is her passion as she believes movies make the world a better place to live in expressing her delight at meeting bright young minds she said being in yamunanagar was special for her beginning her interaction with wahe guru ji da khalsa wahe guruji di fateh jo bole so nihaal she said east is east had focused on the travails of a pakistanibritish family trying to cope with cultural divide this movie carries a simple message that needs to be reiterated the world over east may be east west may be west but people are the same despite their superficial differences the highpoint of the film is young aqib khan who not only renders a scintillating performance as the pubescent sajid but becomes a metaphor for the whole film sajids journey of self discovery which begins with extreme hate for the dust bowl of pakistan grows to a gentle fondness for his origins and becomes the story of each and every character in the film acceptance must come from both sides be it jehangir khans abandoned family or his culturally diverse english family in a seminal sequence the two wives manage to communicate despite their language barriers and touch your heart while they do it the performances are all impressive specially by om puri and ila arun and the humour is delightful explaining why she had chosen punjab for shooting her film and not pakistan she said the pakistan government couldnt support her and she felt that punjab would be the better option as it was easy to create a pakistani village here there is a border between india and pakistan but in the real sense it is still a part of punjab leslie is a jew by birth and her father shifted to england many years back manoj srivastva ceo of entertainment society goa said the new generation should value the kind of films shown in the film festival