Mostofa Sarwar Farooki’s ‘No Land′s Man’ nominated for Kim Jiseok Award at Busan film festival

Director Mostofa Sarwar Farooki and actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui.
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Prominent Bangladeshi filmmaker Mostofa Sarwar Farooki’s ‘No Land′s Man’ has been nominated for the Kim Jiseok Award at the upcoming 26th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF).

Mostofa Sarwar Farooki’s works are among the seven films contesting for the award at the festival, which will be held at Busan, South Korea from 6-16 October. Two winning films will be awarded $10,000 each.

Organisers unveiled the name of the nominees on the official website of BIFF on Monday.

“Gensan Punch’ by Brillante Mendoza of the Philippines, ‘24’ by Singaporean director Royston Tan, ‘Riverside Mukolitta’ by Japanese director Ogigami Naoko, ‘Sughra′s Sons’ by Azerbaijani director Ilgar Najaf, ‘The Rapist’ by Aparna Sen of India, ‘The Bargain’ by Chinese director Wang Qi are the other films nominated for the Kim Jiseok Award.

Team ‘No Land’s Man’. Actor Tahsan Khan took the selfie during the shooting.
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The Kim Jiseok Award was established in memory of the Korean programme director Kim Jiseok in 2017. This year, Iranian director Reza Mirkarimi is the head of the jury for the Award at the festival.

The festival organisers, in their website, said 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.

In a statement, Mostofa Sarwar Farooki said, “As a director, I have explained some personal feelings in the film. I was born in Noakhali. People from this area have been a subject of troll for many years. And I had understood at a very young age I must find a way out of this. So, I started telling lies about where I came from.”

Michael Megan, Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Nusrat Imrose Tisha during the shooting of ‘No Land′s Man’.
Prothom Alo

“I didn’t bring any school friend to my home because hearing the dialects of my parents they would understand where I came from. As I grew up, I had understood how it had affected mentally. How it creates an empty space in our heart when we can’t introduce ourselves with our own identity, can’t accept ourselves and can’t feel comfortable with our identity. This matter has inspired my work. The central character of ‘No Land’s Man’ feels the pain of this nothingness from childhood.”

Mostofa Sarwar Farooki also unveiled the first look of the film in Facebook with the news of the film getting the nomination at the Bussan festival.

“What you see now in the form of a still image today is an outcome of ten long years of tenacious working. First started working on the script of No Land's Man ten years ago. I stumbled, suffered, but picked myself up again in these ten years!... Ladies and gentlemen, presenting you the first look of our labour of love "No Land's Man," he wrote in Facebook post along with the image of the film.

Faridur Reza Sagar Anjan Chowdhury, Nusrat Imrose Tisha, Indian actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui and US producer Shrihari Sathe are the producers of the film while BongoBD is its co-producer.

Most works of the film were done in New York and the remaining was completed in Australia and India.

Producer Nusrat Imrose Tisha wrote in a Facebook post, “My first effort as a producer! So happy to share the first look of the film No Land's Man. And what an occasion to share the first look: the film has been nominated for Kim Jiseok Award at Busan Film Festival! Best wishes to the Team!”

Nusrat Imrose Tisha, AR Rahman and Mostofa Sarwar Farooki.
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Academy Award winning Indian musician AR Rahman, also a co-producer, directed music of the film.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui took the lead role while Tahsan Khan of Bangladesh, Michael Megan of Australia and Isha Chopra, Vikram Kochhar and Kiron Khoje of India acted in the film.

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