IFFI Film Bazaar selects Bangladeshi filmmaker’s documentary amongst top 10 films

Bangladeshi director Tasmia Afrin Mou's mid-length Bengali documentary film, "Amar Nanur Bari" (Where My Grandma Lives), is about the destruction of water bodies in the name of development. It is amongst the ten works chosen for the much-awaited list of Film Bazaar of the 54th edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) to be held in Goa from November 20.

The announcement of the films for the Film Bazaar, which is the business arm of the IFFI, was announced on November 11.

The 40-year-old filmmaker, Mou, has created a 51-minute film that narrates the story of herself visiting her Nanu's residence to capture her Gradma on camera. Residing in her century-old home, the Nanu has been living alone since her husband passed away 27 years ago. For Mou, her Nanu's residence symbolises memories of a tranquil village, adorned with marshes, lush greens, and the majestic family pond.

For generations, neighbourhood children grew up learning to swim in that pond. Rawnak, Nanu's other maternal grandson, lives with his family next to her house. In Rawnak's house, there is a small pond still surviving but many of the heirs from Rawnak's father's side want to sell this pond too. But Rawnak doesn't want to sell their family pond containing his father's memory.

Ironically, Rawnak's own business is to buy marshes or ponds, and "develop" them as residential plots by filling them with sand to sell them. The "development" is going on all over the country, destroying water bodies and obliterating all the creatures living in them.

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This year, the selection of films for the Film Bazaar reflects a diverse mix of fiction, docu-shorts, documentaries, horror films, and even an animated feature that deals with themes relating to the diaspora, both in India and abroad, patriarchy, urban angst, extreme poverty, climate crisis, nationalism, and sports and fitness. The films are in English, Hindi, Bangla, Marwari, Kannada and Maori (New Zealand language).

Reacting to the choice of her film for the Film Bazaar, Mou said: "I am delighted to know that my mid-length documentary 'Where My Grandma Lives' has received a Film Bazaar recommendation. I think it will play an important role in determining the future of my films. As a Bangladeshi independent filmmaker, after making a documentary film, is quite difficult to get a proper distributor or broadcaster. Recommending my film on a competitive and prestigious platform like Film Bazaar is a bonus for me."

Mou, who received the Bangladesh government's national film grant for "Amar Nanur Bari" in 2021, began her film career as a documentary filmmaker at the age of 23 and her work "Tokai-2012" was awarded the Best Short at Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival, China in 2014.

Her debut short film "Statement After My Poet Husband's Death", was selected at prestigious film festivals such as the 34th Festival Tous Courts (France), ZUBROFFKA International Short FF (Poland), Ekadeshma International Short Film Festival (Nepal), Berlin Feminist Film Week and won six international Awards from different film festivals.

Having studied at Dhaka University where she majored in Political Science, Mou is a fellow of the US State Department's American Film Showcase Documentary Filmmaking Programme conducted by the School of Cinematic Art, University of Southern California, and worked with peer Rubaiyat Hossain as Chief Assistant Director in "Under Construction".