Renowned filmmaker Nuhash Humayun’s latest horror short film ‘Foreigners Only’ recently made headlines as it became the first Bangladeshi content on the US-based OTT platform Hulu. The short film was a part of the third season of a Hulu original horror anthology called ‘Bite Size Halloween.’ The beautifully shot film is a fresh take on the ongoing internalised racism that lurks in our society with some minor flaws. The Business Post’s Siam Raihan takes a deep dive into the different aspects of ‘Foreigner's Only.’
Plot - 10/10
The film’s plot revolves around a tannery manager (played by Mostafa Monwar) in a dystopian Dhaka where foreigners are given more priority in everything than the locals. The tannery manager is looking for a place to rent but every landlord wants a ‘white-skinned’ foreigner as their tenant. The prejudices he faced from his own fellow countrymen forced the tannery manager to get creative which starts an eerie chain of events.
Attraction - 10/10
‘Foreigners Only’ is the first Bangladeshi content released on Hulu and Nuhash is the first director in the country who took his content, entirely shot in Dhaka, to a global platform. So, the hype behind the content was justified. Moreover, the horror short raised eyebrows as the director always had a passion for the genre since the beginning of his career. The scenes of his short in the official trailer of the Hulu original horror anthology called ‘Bite Size Halloween’ looked promising compared to the other 19 Hollywood-backed productions.
Theme - 2/10
Though set in a dystopian Dhaka, the film fails to set the proper mood for it. Hulu is not available in Bangladesh and mostly caters to the US audience. We do understand that it is a Halloween-themed content for Hulu but the film’s theme of internalised racism and how it was portrayed is politically problematic. When a US-based audience will watch it without any knowledge of our society or history will think that internalised racism is a very dominant factor in this region and ‘white skinned’ people with a US passport can get away with anything. A little more attention should have been given to clear out these queries for the audience who is witnessing Bangladesh and its people for the first time.
Acting - 6/10
A major issue with every Nuhash Humayun content is his lack of control over his actors. The acting direction was all over the place. Having an internationally acclaimed actor like Mostafa Monwar as his lead for the film did not help his film. The film was shot in both English and Bangla, with most of the dialogues in English. Most of the actors struggled with their performance except Iresh Zaker who was amazing in every single dialogue he delivered. Casting actors with better acting control in English should have been his priority number one. Hopefully, Nuhash will keep that in mind while directing international content in the future.
Dialogue & Screenplay - 3/10
The film’s screenplay is mediocre at best and was filled with terribly written dialogues, with a few exceptions like the pharmacy scene. The English dialogues felt formal and unnatural for a conversation. In a few scenes, the actors delivered grammatically incorrect dialogues but the subtitles were correct. The screenplay was penned by Nuhash himself and was awful to endure at times.
Cinematography/Visual - 9/10
‘Foreigners Only’ was beautifully shot by its cinematographer Ejaz Mehedi. The film’s visuals perfectly created the dystopian mood of Dhaka which the director was intending to portray onscreen. Each shot gives the audience an uneasy feeling of something lurking right around the corner which is rare in Bangladeshi horror content. The brilliant prosthetic makeup, special effects and VFX also heightened the tension of each scene. The production design, costume and locations were also well executed.
Editing & Effects - 8/10
Fuad Shourav did a great job of editing the film. The pacing and flow of the entire film will keep the audience at the edge of their chairs.
Sound & Music - 9/10
The music department deserves applause. Avishek Bhattacharjee and Rakat Zami did a splendid job of creating the score that represents the lead cast's crisis and depression. The good balance of location sound and sound design created the perfect soundscape for this horror flick.
Direction - 6/10
The film was brilliantly executed with some minor politically incorrect themes. The main protagonist looks for a home to rent but somehow the entire city only allows foreigners, specifically ‘white-skinned’ foreigners. There was no proper establishment of why Dhaka turned into a foreigner's safe haven and if this is a dystopian Dhaka then at least a few dialogues should have clarified how foreigners became an integral part of this society.
Overall - 7/10
If we try to forgive the few loopholes, ‘Foreigners Only’ is an amazing horror film compared to the few contemporary horrors produced in our local industry. It firmly holds its place with its unique cinematic language against the other films in the Hulu anthology series. Nuhash and his producer Abrar Athar can take pride in creating an international standard horror short. Nuhash has taken Bangladesh on a global platform with his recent works. Though ‘Foreigners Only’ portrays the life of a middle-class tannery manager but the film’s director Nuhash seems to be out of touch with the socio-economical struggles of Dhaka’s actual middle class. His ending credit shows a compilation of actual tenant-wanted posters and newspaper adverts where it is mentioned that the landlords want ‘foreigners only’ for their property. If we look closer into the adverts he compiled for the pre-credit scene it only shows the properties in the elite areas like Gulshan, Banani, Dhanmondi or Mirpur DOHS region. If the director thinks these are the areas where a middle-class tannery worker turned manager goes to look for a room to rent then he clearly has no idea of Dhaka, let alone Bangladesh. After his extremely controversial Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) advertisement, Nuhash has grown a lot as a director in the past few years and hopefully, he will be more careful and do more research for a script in the future before representing the nation on the global stage.
