Sumit’s ‘Nonajoler Kabbo’ screened at COP26

Young Bangladeshi director Rezwan Shahriar Sumit’s first feature film ‘Nonajoler Kabbo’ (The Salt in Our Waters) was screened at the UN Climate Change Conference, better known as COP26, on November 8 in IMAX Theatre in Glasgow, United Kingdom.

The film highlights the daily life of the fishermen in the country’s coastal areas and their struggle to survive in the face of adverse weather. The focus of the film is the social life and crisis of the fishermen caused by climate change, said director Sumit.

“I wanted to tell the world about the struggles of the marginal fishermen in coastal areas. That is why I applied for the United Nations Climate Conference COP26. I would like to express my gratitude to the organisers for allowing my film to highlight the narrative of the artisanal fishing community. ‘The Salt in Our Waters’ has turned out to be an epic story from the frontlines of the fight against climate change,” he said.

Sumit shot the film during the 2018 monsoon in the village of Gangamatir Char in Patuakhali, the southernmost coast of the country, which is home to 20 fishing families.

But, Gangamatir Char does not exist anymore. Sumit was unable to return to the location for a year and a half due to the pandemic and finally managed to visit again in July this year.

“When I returned to that place, to those people with whom I had worked, I only found some broken tree branches and the rising tide,” he said.

“I learned that the sea level in this area has risen dramatically in the past two to three years. I hope people will start taking climate change seriously and initiate conservation about the effects climate change in the root level and study about it,” he added.

Produced jointly by Sumit and Ilann Girard of France, ‘Nonajoler Kabbo’ stars Fazlur Rahman Babu, Tasnova Tamanna, Mrittika Maya and Shatabdi Wadud, among others. Music of the film was done by Shayan Chowdhury Arnob.

The film will be released in theatres countrywide on November 26.