Bangladeshi films to shine in Cannes this year

Highlights: 

Bangladeshi films in 74th Cannes Film Festival, 2021: 

• Rehana Maryam Noor, official selection, Un Certain Regard

• Moving Bangladesh, Marché du Film

• Eka (Solo), La Fabrique Cinema

• Munni,  Marché du Film, Cannes Docs, Docs-in-Progress, Showcase South Asia

• Thirteen Destinations of a Traveller, Marché du Film, Cannes Docs, Docs-in-Progress, Showcase South Asia

A number of Bangladeshi films will participate in the prestigious Cannes Film Festival starting from 6 July in the French seaside town. 

The 74th edition of the festival is very important and at the same time an occasion of great pride for the Bangladeshis, because for the first time a Bangladeshi film – "Rehana Maryam Noor" directed by Abdullah Mohammad Saad – has been officially selected for competition in Un Certain Regard, a major segment of the festival. 

Aside from this, Bangladeshi films are also participating in "Marché du Film" – the business counterpart to the Cannes Film Festival and the world's biggest film market where producers, directors, distributors and film crews from different countries gather to exchange their views and become involved in filmmaking and marketing. 

Nuhash Humayun's first film "Moving Bangladesh" has been invited to Marché du Film as part of collaboration between NFDC Film Bazaar and Cannes. It was selected last year in the Film Bazaar, India's largest industry platform for project development, financing and co-production.  

Producers of "Moving Bangladesh" Arifur Rahman and Bijan Imtiaz have reached France already on invitation. 

Arifur Rahman told The Business Standard, "Seven projects have been selected from India's NFDC Film Bazaar for the Co-production Day of Marché du Film. Nuhash Humayun's 'Moving Bangladesh' is one of them. We will highlight the film's prospect in front of professional filmmakers and the producers present there."

He said another film from their company Gupi Bagha Productions is participating in Cannes this year. Eka (Solo), a joint production of Bangladesh, India and France, is one of the 10 screenplays from different countries selected for the French Institute's La Fabrique Cinema programme, which promotes the emergence of young filmmakers from southern countries on the international market. 

Arifur Rahman is producing "Eka" from Bangladesh, while the other two producers of the film are Dominic Welinski of DW Productions in France and Sumon Sen, a Kolkata-based film director.

Another programme in Marché du Film called "Cannes Docs" will showcase two Bangladeshi documentaries. The films selected as the "Docs-in-Progress" in this section can get post production funds. 

One of the two documentaries selected in Cannes Docs' Showcase South Asia, in collaboration with the International Film Initiative of Bangladesh, is "Munni," directed by Tahrima Khan and produced by Abu Shahed Emon.

The other Bangladeshi film showcased here is "Thirteen Destinations of a Traveller." It is directed by Partha Das and jointly produced by Mokhlesur Rahman Talukder Lenin from Bangladesh and Soumya Mukherjee from Kolkata, India.  

Six awards will be presented on Doc Day on 13 July at the festival.

The 10-minute rough-cuts of the two projects selected in Showcase South Asia will be presented online on 7 July. The programme will be conducted by Samia Zaman, president of International Film Initiative of Bangladesh. Directors and producers will participate in the event online, where Director of Dhaka Dock Lab Tarek Ahmed will also be present.