Bangladeshi filmmaker Kamar Ahmad Simon’s highly anticipated film titled ‘Shikolbaha’ has been nominated to participate in the main competition section for the prestigious Golden Goblet award at the Shanghai International Film Festival, said a press release.
Shikolbaha is a joint production of Studio Beginning from Bangladesh and Weydemann Bros from Germany.
More than 3,700 films from 105 countries were submitted for screening to the festival this year. Among the films, besides Shikolbaha from Bangladesh, only 14 films from Spain, Argentina, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Iran have been selected for the main competition.
‘Shikolbaha was my first script. However, before I could begin, I became involved with Shunte Ki Pao! and then dedicated considerable time to Neel Mukut and Anyadin.... I don’t believe in rushing my work; I prefer to immerse myself in the essence of a project for years, allowing it to evolve with time,’ said Kamar about taking 10 years to make the film.
Fauzia Karim Anu, the fresh face in the lead role of the film, said, ‘Working on the set of Shikolbaha completely transformed my understanding of film shooting; the entire process felt like an intensive course. Interestingly, Kamar Bhai and Sara Apa never dictated how I should portray the character. Instead, they guided me to discover Ruba on my own.’
The film was one of the ten invited scripts at Cannes’ La Fabrique des Cinémas du Monde in 2014, then titled ‘Sankhodhoni’. Kamar was awarded the prestigious World Cinema Fund from the Berlin Film Festival for two consecutive years for this film.
Shikolbaha also received the Göteborg Film Festival Script Grant and the National Film Grant of Bangladesh.