‘Shimu-Made in Bangladesh’ in Japanese cinemas

Rubaiyat Hossain directed women centric feature film ‘Shimu - Made in Bangladesh’ has released in Japan. The film will be screened on 15 theaters from Hokkaido to Okinawa including Tokio. Japanese distributor company Pandora distributed the film in Japan. Director Rubaiyat Hossain was present on the opening show virtually and answered various questions of the audience.

Including Rubaiyat Hossain most of the main crew of this film was women. Notable among them are Sabine Lancelin in filming, Elisha Albert in the soundtrack and Jonaki Bhattacharya in art direction. Women have also an important role for releasing the film in Japan. The Japanese distributor Pandora distributed the film and head of Pandora is also a woman. A group of female Japanese students of Osaka Oman University have subtitled the film in Japanese language.

‘Shimu’ released in Bangladesh on March 11 marking International Women’s Day.

Screening of ‘Shimu’ began with the participation in the Open Doors Lab at the Locarno Film Festival in 2017. Rubaiyat Hossain won the Art International Award for the screenplay of the film.

The lead actress Reekita Nandini Shimu won the Best Actress award at the Saint-Jean-de-Luz Film Festival in France. At the Torino Film Festival in Italy, she won the Interfade Award, and at the Amiens International Film Festival in France, the film has won three awards, including the Best Audience Award and the Jury Award.

The film has previously been invited to compete in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 78th Golden Globe Awards.

After the world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, ‘Shimu’ was screened at the 63rd BFI London Film Festival. The film has also been acclaimed and awarded at various international film festivals.

The film, co-produced by François d’Artemare (Les Films De L’apres-Midi) and Ashique Mostafa (Khona Talkies), is about a housemaid who becomes a factory worker and forms a union to fight for her rights.

The film stars Reekita Nandini Shimu, Novera Hossain, Dipanbita Martin, Parveen Paru, Mayabi Maya, Mostafa Monwar, Shatabdi Wadud, Jayraj, Momena Chowdhury, Wahida Mallick Jolly and Samina Lutfa in different roles.