Amid row over Pakistan’s decision to boycott the T20 World Cup clash with India on February 15, a Pakistani sports film about cricket and how it gives hope and purpose to refugee children from a war-torn country screened at Nandan in Kolkata.
Titled After Team Ladu, the sports drama was screened at the fourth International Sports Film Festival of India on Wednesday, days ahead of the scheduled T20 World Cup clash that hangs in balance.
The 14-minute short documentary-fiction film, directed by Imran Qamar Zaman, follows refugee children from a war-torn country who find safety, dignity, and renewed hope through cricket in Pakistan. The film highlights how the sport becomes a powerful lifeline for displaced children, helping them rebuild confidence and dream of a better future.
“After Team Ladu is about kids who are refugees, staying in refugee camps in Pakistan. They are coached by a USA-born coach. It is a lovely and very human-oriented story,” said Rongon Majumder, secretary of the organising committee.
“The audience loved the film because it carries a crucial message for the common people, the society and the nation. It is very important for all the people of the world to be united,” he added.
Though the film is set in Pakistan, it entered the ongoing international sports film festival in Kolkata through the US embassy, according to organisers Social Sports Foundation.
The ongoing five-day festival will feature 36 films from 16 countries, including Argentina, Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Iran, Mexico, the Netherlands, the UK, the USA, and India.
The opening ceremony took place on Wednesday at Nandan III at 5pm. It was attended by former India cricketer and coach Sambaran Banerjee, vice president of the Daman & Diu Olympic Association Alexander Thomas, and former manager of the Indian Cricket Team Biswarup Dey as chief guests.
Mira Nair’s Queen of Katwe, Reema Kagti’s Gold, Ira Deokule’s Athletes Are Mad, Seyyed Abbas Hosseini’s Chekhov’s Gun, Adam Lapallo’s Untouchable, Rosaura Aranda’s Until Death, Dmitry Vingursky’s Believe in a Dream, and Arnab Riingo Banerjee’s Messi are among the other films that will be screened at ISFFI 2026, set to take place from February 4 to February 8 at Nandan III from 12:30pm to 7:30pm.
Another notable attraction at the festival is Tova, a Croatian sports film based on the life of Yugoslavian table tennis legend Antun Tova Stipancic.