Archive - 11th Five Flavours Film Festival

Live from Dhaka

Bangladesh 2016, 91’
subtitles: Polish and English
director: Abdullah Mohammad Saad
screenplay: Abdullah Mohammad Saad
cinematography: Tuhin Tamijul
editing: Abdullah Mohammad Saad
sound: Sayba Talukder
cast: Mostafa Monowar, Tasnova Tamanna, Tanvir Ahmed Chowdhury, Mosharrof Hossen, Shimul Joy, Uzzal Afjal, Rony Shajjad
producer: Shamsur Rahman Alvy, Ahmed Adnan Habib, Ehsanul Haque Babu
production: Khelna Chobi
language: Bengali
colouration: b&w

Awards and festivals

Singapore IFF 2016 - Best Director, Best Actor; IFF Rotterdam 2017

Film description

Sazzad came to Dhaka as a young, energetic man with lots of ideas for his future. Today he is deep in debt, his relationship is on the brink of collapsing, and the hope for a better life is long lost among the streets of the city he travels through seeking a way out. The thought of emigration is his only focal point, but even that seems to be too costly.

Desperation overflows the black-and-white, grainy frames showing the capital city of Bangladesh in an utterly gloomy light. Saad is not turning away from the reality which takes away the last bits of the protagonist’s faith in a change of fate. The streets of the city he wanted to find his place in, create a suffocating labyrinth with no escape, encircling and dangerous. There is little hope for a helping hand – everyone is sunken deep in their own troubles. The individual struggle of Sazzad is a wider image of the tragic fate of thousands of people who decide to wander through the contemporary world, giving up everything close and familiar, hoping for very little – a normal life. The debut of an independent filmmaker from Bangladesh is exhausting, but also brutally honest, not looking for any delusions or false comfort.

Jagoda Murczyńska

Abdullah Mohammad Saad

Born in 1985 in Bangladesh, studied Didactics at the University of Dhaka, before switching to filmmaking. He has produced short films and television commercials with his own production company. Live from Dhaka (2016) is his feature film debut. The film received Silver Screen Awards for Best Director and Best Performance (Mostafa Monwar) at the 27th Singapore International Film Festival.

Filmography:

2016 Dhaka na żywo / Live from Dhaka

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