समाचार

After its world premiere and three sold-out screenings at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, Saba, a film by Maksud Hossain, has embarked on a prestigious global festival circuit, screening at the Busan International Film Festival and now in competition at the Red Sea International Film Festival. I recently reconnected with Maksud, my Global Media Makers Fellow, for an in-depth conversation about the creation of his film, reflecting on our shared experience in Los Angeles back in June 2023.

Film Independent’s Global Media Makers (Gmm) is a six-week residency in LA, in partnership with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, supporting independent filmmakers worldwide. This is where I, a Lebanese screenwriter and director, met Maksud Hossain from Bangladesh while we were both in the screenwriting track. It was here that I first read the screenplay for Saba and later watched an early draft of his debut film.

“Saba” is a powerful movie about life, duty, and how strong people are against the busy and complicated landscape of Dhaka, Bangladesh. The movie, directed by Maksud Hossain for the first time, is about Saba, a 25-year-old woman who is taking care of her paralyzed mother, Shirin while living an unbelievably hard life.

The story is mostly about Saba’s desperate efforts to get money for her mom’s heart surgery, which will save her life. She faces societal judgments and personal sacrifices while working at a seedy hookah bar, which reflects the struggles of Bangladesh’s young people who are on the outside. Her life is too stifling; her tiny apartment is both a safe place for her and a jail since she has to lock her mother inside while she works.

The first book by Hossain is not just a personal story; it’s also a complex political...

The progress of Bangladeshi cinema during the last few years is rather evident even if sporadic. Although the presence of Mostofa Sarwar Farooki remains the most dominant one, Maksud Hossain, in his feature debut, comes to add his name in a list including Rubaiyat Hossain, Abdullah Mohammad Saad and Mohammad Rabby Mridha among others, who highlight the fact quite eloquently. The script is based on personal experience, as Hossain’s wife and co-writer of the movie Trilora Khan, has been the primary caregiver for her paraplegic mother for 25 years following a car accident.

Saba is screening at Toronto International Film Festival

The story revolves around 25-year-old Saba, who lives and takes care of her rather demanding mother, Shirin, who has been paralyzed from the waist down after a car accident 20 years ago. As Shirin’s need for medical treatment increases, with the complications with her heart causing significant issues, Saba...

A sense of financial and personal stagnation permeates “Saba,” the Bangladeshi social drama from first-time director Maksud Hossain. A strong (if stylistically straightforward) debut, it follows 25-year-old Saba (Mehazabien Chowdhury), who struggles to make ends meet while looking after her ailing, paraplegic single mother Shirin (Rokeya Prachy), whose own frustrations often explode in Saba’s direction.

To pay for Shirin’s life-saving surgery, Saba finds a waitressing job at a seedy hookah lounge in Dhaka — a position in which, she’s told, women tend not to last — with long hours that only complicate her caregiving duties. It’s one indignity after the next, both for Saba, who has to beg for the job to begin with, and for Shirin, who has no choice but to wait in bed until Saba can bathe her and change her diaper.

Tales of such misfortune run the risk of veering into pity porn, but...

Bangladeshi filmmaker Maksud Hossain is set to unveil his feature directorial debut “Saba” at the Toronto Film Festival. The film tells the story of a young woman who is the sole caregiver for her paraplegic mother in Dhaka.

The project emerged from personal experience. Hossain’s wife Trilora Khan has been the primary caregiver for her paraplegic mother for 25 years following a car accident. After his father-in-law passed away suddenly from Covid-19, Hossain and Khan, who co-wrote the script, began developing a story about a lower-middle class woman in Dhaka facing caregiving challenges without family support or financial resources.

“We started thinking about what if we tell a story of a young woman, Saba, who lives in lower-middle class Dhaka, and she is taking care of her paraplegic mother by herself, without any family, without money. What would Saba do in a situation like this to make sure that her mother lives at any cost?...

4th edition of Arthouse Asia Film Festival has ended on January 11, 2020 in Kolkata with a grand ceremony. The week-long festival has been arranged by Arthouse Film Foundation and has acquired the reputation of being the most prestigious industry focussed independent film festival in South Asia.

Shapath Das, the festival director has said that Arthouse Asia Foundation will continue to work for the encouragement and growth of Arthouse Independent Cinema. The team will focus on schools and colleges to spread awareness and nurture new talent. The journey has just started and sky is the limit.

Arthouse Asia Foundation has partnered with Festival des 3 Continents and has played a crucial role in bringing ‘Produire au Sud’ lab in India for the first time. Produire au Sud workshop for screenwriters and producers is known for mentoring international film projects worldwide. Seven projects from India, SriLanka, Bhutan and Nepal have been selected for the first time.

The Arthouse Asia Film Festival, presented by Arthouse Film Foundation and Doab Uncut Motion will continue its tradition of celebrating and encouraging Arthouse cinema in 2020. This is the 4th edition of A2FF and the event has gone global in true sense in recent past. More than 50 films will be screened during the festival which include acclaimed shorts and full-length feature films. Out of these 12 films are premiering first time in Asia and 4 are Kolkata premiere. For the first time in India, a screenwriting and producers’ workshop has been arranged collaborating with internationally renowned Produire au Sud. 7 projects from South Asia have been selected for this workshop on 11th January.

Masterclass by eminent filmmakers, film talks, panel discussions and industry meet will also be organized during the event. For example a Masterclass by Buddhadeb Dasgupta in conversation with Aseem Chabra, festival director of New York Indian Film Festival, a Masterclass by Sanal Kumar Sashidharan,...

The Bangladesh Oscar Committee has selected Mostofa Sarwar Farooki’s “No Bed of Roses” (“Doob”) as the country’s entry to the Oscars foreign language category. The film follows a renowned filmmaker who creates a scandal in Bangladesh when he leaves his wife and marries his daughter’s classmate.

Indian actor Irrfan Khan stars in and co-produced the film that also stars Nusrat Imrose Tisha Parno Mittra and Rokeya Prachy (“Kingdom of Clay Subjects”).

The film premiered in competition at the 2017 Shanghai International Film Festival; and subsequently at the Moscow International Film Festival where it won the Kommersant Weekend Prize. It also played the El Gouna, Busan, Vancouver and Kolkata festivals.

“Roses” was initially banned in Bangladesh on the grounds that it might be based on a revered real-life author and filmmaker. The ban was eventually lifted and the film released in October 2017 in Bangladesh, France, India and Australia.

Variety reviewer,...

Life is a collection of moments coming out of the aura of relationships. The relationship could be between a mother and child, father and daughter or son, husband and wife and so on. But somehow, like life, every relationship expires with time. And the thread of relationship moves on with time in a quest to fulfill its wish. Director Mostofa Sarwar Farooki portrays few of these relationship moments like an untold poetry in his classic “Doob: No Bed of Roses”.

“Doob falls in a new relationship with her daughter’s friend Nitu (Parno Mittra). With time, Javed marries Nitu and divorces his present wife Maya (Rokeya Prachy). Javed’s daughter Saberi (Tisha) fails to accept her father’s infidelity and decides not to keep any relation with him. The narrative moves through the subtle path of emotions to bring in the threads of relationships till life touches the final thread- death.

London 24 June – 6.30pm Genesis Cinema

Birmingham 25 June – 8.30pm The Mockingbird Cinema & Kitchen

“Why does your father always cast you in his films?” a young Nitu asks Saberi as the two eat from their lunch boxes. “If you want, I’ll ask him to cast you next time,” Saberi tells her friend. When the camera pans left and right again, we see the two girls as young women, sitting on the edge of an auditorium balcony at their school reunion, the strain of talking to each other evident. What caused that rift between them is what Doob sets out to explore.

Flashback to seven years earlier, when Saberi is on a trip with her family: her father, well-regarded filmmaker Javed Hassan (Irrfan Khan); her mother, Maya (Rokeya Prachy); and her brother, Ahir (Rahad Hossain). Saberi is clearly devoted to both her parents, though it’s immediately obvious that she’s trying...

Bollywood star and globally acclaimed actor, Irrfan Khan will play the lead role in an international film titled, No Bed of Roses, written and directed by Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, one of the noteworthy filmmakers from Bangladesh. The bilingual (Bengali and English language) film, titled Doob in Bengali, is produced by Kolkata's Eskay Movies and Bangladesh's Jazz Multimedia. Irrfan Khan's production company Ik will be co-producing the film. This is his second venture as a producer after Ishaan Nair's Kaash. Apart from Khan, the main cast includes Bangladeshi actress Nusrat Imroz Tisha who starred in Farooki's, Third Person Singular Number (Bangladesh's entry to the 2011 Oscars) and Television (Bangladesh's entry to the 2014 Oscars), Parno Mitra (X: Past Is Present) and Rokeya Prachy (The Clay Bird, 2002, Director's Fortnight, Cannes). The film will go on the floors in March end and will be shot in one schedule of 35 days across the hill...

Irrfan Khan is set to co-produce and star in Bangladeshi filmmaker Mostofa S. Farooki’s No Bed Of Roses, which is scheduled to start shooting later this month.

Khan’s Ik Company will co-produce the film, described as “a family story about loss and love”, with Bangladesh’s Jazz Multimedia and India’s Essay Movies. Jazz Multimedia will distribute in Bangladesh.

The cast also includes Nusrat Imrose Tisha, who appeared in Farooki’s 2012 drama Television; Rokeya Prachy, whose credits include The Clay Bird, which won the Fipresci prize in Cannes Directors Fortnight in 2002; Parno Mittra and Bratya Basu.

The Bengali and English-language project was selected for the 2013 edition of Film Bazaar, organised by India’s National Film Development Corp (Nfdc), where it won the Dubai Film Market award.

Television, about an imam in a Bangladeshi village who bans TV, closed Busan International Film Festival in 2012 and won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2013 Asia Pacific Screen Awards...

Terrence Malick's The New World

Criterion has confirmed they are bringing Terrence Malick's 2005 film "The New World" to the collection and have worked with cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki on a new 4K restoration.

The version will be the director's "preferred 172-minute cut" rather than the 135-minute limited theatrical or 150-minute wide theatrical. Some color grading videos from the disc release have also been posted, check those out below:

No Bed of Roses

Indian star Irrfan Khan ("Jurassic World," "Life of Pi") will play the lead role in the Bengali and English language feature "No Bed of Roses" which is being helmed by Mostofa Sarwar Farooki.

The story follows members of two families discover the finer fabric of love when the patriarch of a family dies. Nusrat Imroz Tisha, Parno Mitra and Rokeya Prachy also star in the film which begins shooting late March in Bangladesh. [Source: Variety]

Aperture

Stx Entertainment and...

NEW YORK -- This debut feature from documentary filmmaker Tareque Masud, co-written with his wife, Catherine, is the first Bangladeshi film to win an award at Cannes and receive North American theatrical distribution. The autobiographical tale of a young boy growing up in East Pakistan in the late 1960s, just before the civil war that resulted in Bangladesh's independence in 1971, "The Clay Bird" is ultimately stronger on characterization and atmosphere than narrative. But its portrait of a society torn apart by, among other things, religious fundamentalism, is all too currently resonant. The film is now playing theatrical engagements in New York, San Francisco and San Rafael, Calif.

The young boy at the center of the story is Anu Nurul Islam Bablu), who is caught in the middle between his parents' contrasting philosophies. His father Kazi (Jayanto Chattopadhyay) is a strict Muslim fundamentalist who is unhappy with his son's penchant for attending Hindu festivals, while his more liberal mother Ayesha (Rokeya Prachy) is becoming increasingly embittered by her husband's repressiveness. Kazi sends the shy Anu away to a strict madrassa school, where lessons are learned by rote and independent thinking isn't tolerated. Ayesha, meanwhile, begins to spend more and more time with her more intellectually oriented brother-in-law (Soaeb Islam).

Anu becomes best friends with the class misfit Rokon (Russell Farazi), who is unwilling to conform to the school's rigid policies. Meanwhile, his younger sister has fallen ill, and the father's refusal to allow her any treatment other than homeopathic remedies creates an even bigger rift between him and his wife.

This domestic conflict is used as a microcosm of the increasingly violent political turmoil between the moderate and extremist factions that eventually led to civil war.

The filmmaker's clear empathy for his characters and close knowledge of his subject matter gives the film a vibrant authenticity that well compensates for any narrative flaws. The film, which faced censorship in its native country, also benefits greatly from its evocative cinematography and Bengali folk music score.

NEW YORK -- This debut feature from documentary filmmaker Tareque Masud, co-written with his wife, Catherine, is the first Bangladeshi film to win an award at Cannes and receive North American theatrical distribution. The autobiographical tale of a young boy growing up in East Pakistan in the late 1960s, just before the civil war that resulted in Bangladesh's independence in 1971, "The Clay Bird" is ultimately stronger on characterization and atmosphere than narrative. But its portrait of a society torn apart by, among other things, religious fundamentalism, is all too currently resonant. The film is now playing theatrical engagements in New York, San Francisco and San Rafael, Calif.

The young boy at the center of the story is Anu Nurul Islam Bablu), who is caught in the middle between his parents' contrasting philosophies. His father Kazi (Jayanto Chattopadhyay) is a strict Muslim fundamentalist who is unhappy with his son's penchant for attending Hindu festivals, while his more liberal mother Ayesha (Rokeya Prachy) is becoming increasingly embittered by her husband's repressiveness. Kazi sends the shy Anu away to a strict madrassa school, where lessons are learned by rote and independent thinking isn't tolerated. Ayesha, meanwhile, begins to spend more and more time with her more intellectually oriented brother-in-law (Soaeb Islam).

Anu becomes best friends with the class misfit Rokon (Russell Farazi), who is unwilling to conform to the school's rigid policies. Meanwhile, his younger sister has fallen ill, and the father's refusal to allow her any treatment other than homeopathic remedies creates an even bigger rift between him and his wife.

This domestic conflict is used as a microcosm of the increasingly violent political turmoil between the moderate and extremist factions that eventually led to civil war.

The filmmaker's clear empathy for his characters and close knowledge of his subject matter gives the film a vibrant authenticity that well compensates for any narrative flaws. The film, which faced censorship in its native country, also benefits greatly from its evocative cinematography and Bengali folk music score.