Excerpts from a remarkable letter we received after the screening of State of Fear in Kathmandu, Nepal (October 4, 2005):

Dear Pamela Yates, this is Kanak Mani Dixit, chair of the Film South Asia/Barrel of the Gun festival which we completed last week overcoming government threats and other challenges.

I am writing, firstly, to tell you that as the closing film of the Barrel of the Gun, "State of Fear" was greeted with pin-drop silence from a house-full audience of more than 300. And in every mind, there was a constant refrain -- a comparing and contrasting with the situation we face here in Nepal vis-a-vis the Maobaadi (Sendoro Luminoso), Kathmandu-centricism (Lima), Fujimori (King Gyanendra), and a parallel history of neglect of 'backward' people of the hills and plains, and so on. Though no two countries are of course alike there was so much resonance in your film that every person in the audience I know wanted this film to be shown to a larger audience.

Which brings me to another point: right after the film screening some of us got together to volunteer to do some work immediately - if we got permission, to translate and have a Nepali-language dubbed (not subtitled) version of State of Fear available for the Nepali audience. We believe that such a production would be earthshaking here in Nepal, by opening eyes, and making people understand the cul-de-sac that we have entered through the eyes of Peruvian society, across the hemispheres...to take advantage of your superb film to help in the process of bringing peace in Nepal by helping the audiences across the country understand the nature of conflict and how it was tackled in faraway Peru.

Let me on behalf of all of us at Film South Asia/Barrel of the Gun thank you for allowing us to screen State of Fear in Kathmandu, on Tuesday, 4 October 2005. Sincerely,kanak mani dixit Chair, FSA Editor, Himal Southasian