Doob
Successful movie director Javed Hasan finds himself in a midlife crisis, questioning whether marriage and career have demanded too much from him. A tryst with Nitu, his daughter’s childhood friend, turns into a national scandal. Javed’s loving family is torn apart. He eventually divorces wife Maya and is estranged from daughter Saberi and son Ahir. Javed and Nitu marry, but it’s no bed of roses for the couple as they receive the wrath of judgmental Bangladeshi society. Once close friends, Saberi and Nitu become vulnerable to public shame. Saberi realizes that Nitu has competed against her since childhood. Saberi must now regroup herself and push her mother to explore the grace of independence. In desperation, together they seek strength.
Director
Variety’s Jay Weissberg wrote, “Mostofa Sarwar Farooki is a key exemplar of the Bangladeshi new wave cinema movement.” The Hollywood Reporter wrote “Mostofa Sarwar Farooki could be the next Southeast Asian filmmaker to break out” in the review of his acclaimed 2012 film Television. Television was the closing film at Busan and won The Grand Jury Prize at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. Farooki’s fourth feature was selected for numerous international festivals and was Bangladesh’s submission to the Oscars. Farooki, pioneer of the progressive filmmakers’ movement Chabial, set new trends in his country’s film industry in the late 1990s. His body of work has addressed themes ranging from middle class angst to the confines of conservative Muslim concepts of guilt and redemption. Farooki is currently developing his next film, No Land’s Man, which won development prizes at India’s Film Bazaar and the APSA-MPA film fund.
Festival/Awards
Film Bazaar 2013 – Winner – Dubai Film Market Award Shanghai International Film Festival, June 2017 – Competition Moscow International Film Festival, June 2017 – Winner – Kommersant Jury Prize In Competition, El Gouna Film Festival, September 2017 Official Selection, Vancouver International Film Festival, September 2017 Official Selection, Busan International Film festival, October 2017 Closing Film, South Asian Film Festival, Paris, October 2017 In Competition, Asia Pacific Screen Awards, November 2017Official Selection, IFFI GOA 2017 Official Selection, IFFK Kerala 2017 In Competition, 28th Afro, Asia, Latin Film Festival, Milano 2018 Official Selection, Munich IFF 2018