69th Venice Film Festival Kicks off With Mira Nair’s ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’

The 69th Venice Film Festival kicked off on Aug. 29. 2012 with Indian director Mira Nair's political thriller "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" that explores life changes of a young Pakistani man rising through the ranks on Wall Street after the 9/11 attack.

The movie is an adaptation of Pakistani writer Mohsin Hamid's book of the same name. 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist' has a mix of Bollywood and Hollywood top names such as Shabana Azmi, Om Puri, Kate Hudson, Kiefer Sutherland and Liev Schreiber. The lead character of 'Changez' has been played by Riz Ahmed of 'Trishna' fame.

Big names like George Clooney, Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp did not appear in the red carpet show in the evening as in past years.

This year's festival will feature 18 movies in the competition rounds, with dozens more appearing in out-of-competition and Horizon sessions.