'Shonibar Bikel' to compete
Bangladeshi filmmaker Mostofa Sarwar Farooki's seventh and latest full-length film 'Shonibar Bikel' (Saturday Afternoon) has been selected for the Munich International Film Festival in Germany. The festival will be held from June 27 to July 6. 'Shonibar Bikel' will be screened on June 29, 30 and July 1 at the festival.
The film will see its German premiere and will compete in CineCoPro Section against international critics' top award winning film of Cannes 2019 'It Must Be Heaven' by Elia Suleiman, Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz-directed 'The Invisible Life Of Eurídice Gusmão' which won best film award at the Certain Regards' category in Cannes and Shahrbanoo Sadat-directed Danish-Afghan drama film 'The Orphanage', among others. 'Shonibar Bikel' earlier won two independent jury awards at the 41st Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF) in April this year.
'Saturday Afternoon', a Bangladesh-Germany joint production, is produced by Abdul Aziz from Jaaz Multimedia and Farooki from Chabial.
On a pleasant Saturday afternoon, six terrorists raid a café in downtown Dhaka, Bangladesh. The attackers divide the patrons by religion and kill the foreigners first. The few surviving hostages, all of them are Muslims, attempt to maintain their humanity in spite of the situation.
Basing their story on the attack on the Café Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka on July 1, 2016, director and scriptwriter Farooki examines how and why the attack took place and explores the contradictions inherent in the ideologies and religions involved. This film was shot in a single take.
The film casts Nusrat Imrose Tisha, Zahid Hasan, Mamunur Rashid, Nader Chowdhury, Intekhab Dinar, Iresh Zaker and Gousul Alam Shaon from Bangladesh, while Palestinian actor Eyad Hourani and Indian actor Parambrata Chatterjee are also among the other cast in the film.
