For the first time, a delegation representing South Asian filmmakers will partner with Cannes Docs to present four docs-in-progress. The films presented are from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, and Nepal and will, like the other 28 docs-in-progress, compete for a grand prize of 10,000 euros as well as five other prizes.
“The South Asian Showcase aims to highlight the shared hopes, dreams, and aspirations of the nearly two billion people living in South Asia. In the variety of their subject matters and treatment, these four films portray the incredible contrast and richness of the lived lives in South Asia,” writes Samia Zaman, president of IFIB (International Film Initiative of Bangladesh).
Afghani filmmaker Hezbullah Sultani’s Birds Street, which is at rough cut stage ahead of a December 2021 delivery, offers an alternative reality to the war zone of Kabul, namely a narrow lane tucked away behind an old mosque, lined with stalls and booths selling birds by the dozen.
In the Bangladeshi project Munni, directed by Tahrima Khan and in late production ahead of a January 2022 release, the eponymous former victim of a child marriage is now a protector of many girls. As founder of an all-girls sports academy, Munni is creating future footballers and giving them the courage, hope, and aspiration to not only win at football but to save themselves from child marriage.
The Bangladeshi/Indian Thirteen Destinations of a Traveller (directed by Partha Das, in post-production) tells the story of two parallel journeys; one in which thousands of Sufi pilgrims march together over days and miles to proclaim unrequited love for humanity, enduring physical pain, while in the other a disabled, marginal Muslim man in present India tries to transform his life fighting against physical economic and social challenges in search of love, compassion and elusive happiness.
The fourth project is the Nepalese Devi, that tells of a former guerrilla fighter who survived war time rape and decides to fight for justice. Nepal’s leaders want to keep the shameful truth about how sex abuse was used as weapon of war buried, but Devi will do whatever it takes to bring her suffering and that of her countrywomen to light and resolve the conflict still raging within her. Filmmaker/journalist Subina Shrestha’s $381,409 project is currently in production.
“Some are kind of already, and one or two of them are already in the editing table. Some will be finished next year,” says IFIB president Zaman of the four projects. “So hopefully they can make some real connections here with people. They’re looking for different things depending on [which stage] the films are. So that will be great, but from my experience, I’m quite patient. Things don’t necessarily happen right there at Cannes but hopefully they will all be making useful connections for this project and for their next project,”
The IFIB boss is also very keen to promote her organisation and forge more and more international partnerships with festivals, programmers and sales agents, as well as international press.
“We have to be present, we have to be visible. We have to bring ourselves to the table and then our journey starts,” Zaman continues. “So for our projects, our filmmakers and producers, and for ourselves, we hope that after Docs Day on the 13th July, we will go away with some real friendships and some real connections. And that our projects, and IFIB also, make some true contacts through which in the future, we can develop ourselves more and develop more programs. Even though this year there won’t be that many people [in Cannes] physically, I’m actually making a very big effort to be there onsite, precisely because our filmmakers will not be there. We want to be there to make that connection.”
Across the wider Cannes, a number of Bangladeshi fiction projects are very visible, including Rehana Maruim by Abdullah Mohammad Saad, which marks the first time a film from the country is selected within a competition section (Un Certain Regard).
Bangladeshi producer Arifur Rahman will present his project Solo (Eka) at La Fabrique, the programme dedicated to young creators in Southern and emerging countries looking to mobilise co-production partners in Europe.
Meanwhile during Co-Production Market Day (9 July) Moving Bangladesh, directed by Nuhash Humayun and produced by Bijon Imtiaz, Arifur Rahman and Tran Bich-Quan will be presented. In the film, will see a struggling entrepreneur who creates a ride-sharing app that may just change life as we know it in Bangladesh.
