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Internationally famed Bangladeshi filmmaker Mostofa Sarwar Farooki’s upcoming film ‘No Land’s Man’ has been nominated for the Kim Jiseok Award at the 26th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF).
The other six films in the competition include Aparna Sen’s ‘The Rapist’ (India), Wang Qi’s ‘The Bargain’ (China), Ilgar Najaf’s ‘Sughra’s Sons’ (Azerbaijan-France-Germany), Ogigami Naoko’s ‘Riverside Mukolitta’ (Japan), Royston Tan’s ‘24’ (Singapore-Thailand) and Brillante Mendoza’s ‘Gensan Punch’ (Philippines-Japan).
The 26th BIFF, which will be held from October 6 to October 15, has selected 7 nominees for the Kim Jiseok Award. This year, the Kim Jiseok Award is expected to be more competitive due to the inclusion of new titles from prominent filmmakers such as Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, Brillante Mendoza, Ogigami Naoko, Aparna Sen, among many others, according to a press release published on the website of BIFF on Monday.
Leading Bangladesh’s New Wave, Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, who is already familiar to Korean audiences with his BIFF 2012 closing film, ‘Television’ (2012), has been nominated for the Kim Jiseok Award with his new title, ‘No Land’s Man’ (2021). The film, which was selected at the Asian Project Market (APM) 2020, carefully deals with discrimination and hate crimes based on race, religion, and nationality with AR Rahman’s music, the press release added.
The eighth feature film of Mostafa Sarwar Farooki and second of his ‘identity series’ (first one is being ‘Saturday Afternoon’), the much anticipated ‘No Land’s Man’ has already created buzz for casting the star of critically commercially successful movie ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ and Netflix series ‘Sacred Games’, Nawazuddin Siddiqui.
‘No Land’s Man’ also stars Australian actor Megan Mitchell and celebrated Bangladeshi singer-actor Tahsan Khan in the leading roles.
Expressing his feelings about the film, Farooki said, “As a filmmaker, I have explained some of my personal feelings in the film! I was born in Noakhali, the southern part of the country. People from this area have been trolled for many years. So, at a very young age, I understood that I had to find a way to protect myself from this troll. As I grow up, I realise how it affects the mind and how it creates a void in our hearts when we can’t be recognised with our own identity, can’t even accept ourselves, and not comfortable with our own identity. This mental trauma has inspired my film. The central character in ‘No Land’s Man’ feels the pain of this non-existence of my childhood.”
‘No Land’s Man’ is produced under the banner of Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s production house ‘Magic If Films’, alongside award-winning US producer Shrihari Sathe, director Mostafa Sarwar Farooki, actor Nusrat Imrose Tisha, Square Group Director Anjan Chowdhury and Bongo.
The BIFF appointed Iranian director Reza Mirkarimi as head of the jury, along with the two other jurors Gulnara Abikeyeva, Kazakhstani film critic and professor at Turan University, and Kim Haery, a Korean film critic and a member of the editing committee at CINE21 magazine. The two winners of the award will be announced at the closing ceremony of the 26th Busan International Film Festival on October 15.
