Lahore, Pakistan — On the teeming streets of the eastern city Lahore -called the heart of Pakistan-it’s hard to believe that the 170 million people of this nation are suffering from an identity crisis.

Pakistan recently celebrated its 62nd Independence Day, when it was carved out of British India.  But the gap between the haves and have-nots is vast; 50 million Pakistanis scrape by on less than a dollar a day.

The “official” language is the colonial English and the “national” Urdu language is only spoken by 8% of the population.  Minorities are victims of ongoing sectarian violence at the hands of the Sunni Muslim majority– mainly Shia Muslims and Christians.  And the separatist fight for Baluchistan, one of Pakistan’s four provinces, has kicked-up.  They recently kidnapped an American working for the UN to gain attention for their cause.

Best-selling author and columnist Ahmed Rashid on how the lack of understanding and cohesion between the religious and ethnic groups has prevented the country from its version of a melting pot, “I think Pakistanis remain very confused about their identity, and there are many identities.  A single individual will hold several identities.”

Rashid also thinks instability plays a major role, “all the political crises we have been through since 9/11, and there have been many, I think still have not really cemented a Pakistani identity.”

Compounding the internal questions of identity, there are misperceptions of Pakistan from outside the country.

A young Pakistan filmmaker believes that there is also and external identity crisis.  Prompted by a 2007 Newsweek magazine cover story calling Pakistan “The most dangerous place in the world” he made a documentary he believes shows a real slice of life in his country.

“We felt that the Taliban and the fundamentalists don’t represent all of Pakistan, its just a very slight minority, yet they’re the ones who are the face of Pakistan to the outside world,” said Nasir Ali Khan, Director of the hour-long documentary “Made in Pakistan.”

He and a few other filmmakers went into action to change that.  Khan remembered, “We were like, we have to do something about this.  And the only thing we know how to shoot is not an AK-47, but a camera.”

“Made in Pakistan” follows the lives of four upper middleclass Pakistanis.  One calls on his compatriots to get more involved.  “Everyone is commenting on what Pakistanis are and what they should be and what they should be doing, except for the Pakistanis themselves,“ said Waleed Khalid, Lawyer in “Made in Pakistan.”

The film has toured Pakistan’s main cities, Khan hopes the film he directed inspires change.  “Pakistani youth has realized that their future lies in this country.  Not in going abroad. They have to make this nation work.  Because if this nation does not exist – then they don’t exist.”