Bangladeshi film will be released in France

Bangladeshi film Under Construction will be released in eight cities across France including Paris, Clermont-Ferrand, Belfort and Rouen. Les Lauriers Roses Rouges – the French title for Under Construction - will start its journey on the 7th of June in the mythical art-house cinema ‘Le Saint-André des Arts’ in the Quartier Latin who has played a historical role discovering new cinematic voices,” Helene Kessous and Nemesis Srour, directors of the distributing company Contre-courants jointly stated in a note. “The release Premiere will be in presence of Shahana Goswami and Mita Rahman who played lead roles in the film. We are really looking forward to this moment of exchange with the French audience.” Rubaiyat Hossain’s second feature film Under Construction is about a woman struggling to find herself in the sprawl of urban Bangladesh, where middle class actress Roya reconstructs Red Oleanders, by Rabindranath Tagore, for modern times reclaiming her agency in the process. “Under Construction has been a very special journey for me. From the moment I read the script I felt a connect to a woman that was real in her imperfections and also real in her passion for the arts, her passion to find true meaning in life and in herself. Rubaiyat created a beautiful character and a beautiful script that only became better in the process of our making it in Dhaka. I spent two months in Dhaka and it was a very interesting phase of my own life. I felt I, like Roya the character, was also beginning to find myself, to find my sensibility in cinema,” said Shahana Goswami who played the role of Roya. She also expressed her emotional bond to the city of Under Construction, “Dhaka being where my family is originally from, I too discovered my roots.” Veteran actress Mita Rahman said, “It is an actor’s dream come true when a job that is offered challenges stereotypes and the call comes from a director who enables the practitioner to practice one’s craft to the best of her ability. As I tried to explore and unravel the layers within the person I was trying to create, my skill as a film actor was tested to lengths that I hadn’t encountered before.” Under Construction has been screened widely in film festivals like Seattle, Montreal and Locarno. It has received the Prix Emile Guimet awarded by the Guimet Museum in Paris. The film had its theater release in Bangladesh last year, and was appreciated by critics and audiences. Rubaiyat Hossain expressed her reaction on the release as, “I’m truly happy that the film is releasing in France in some prestigious theaters like the Cinéma Saint-André-des-Arts and Cinéma Pathé. Distribution is always a challenge and I’m very happy that we can release the film internationally.” The casting of the film includes Shahana Goswami, Mita Rahman, Rikita Nandini, Shahadat Hossain and Rahul Bose in major roles. Shayan Chowdhury Arnob has composed the background score while Sahana Bajpaie sang a song by Rabindranath Tagore. The film has been produced by Khona Talkies.