Europe’s cultural channel Arte TV is popular in the European households for its quality content of art. Co-founded in 1991 by French-German initiative, every year ARTE screens more than 400 features, dramas, and TV series in six languages – French, German, English, Spanish, Polish and Italian – the majority of which are European productions.
For the last two decades, Arte TV has screened “La Lucarne,” a program slot around midnight on Mondays dedicated to experimental documentaries.
“La Lucarne” has showed critically acclaimed documentaries such as films by well-known French philosopher-poet-film-maker Chris Marker, recent Cannes sensation Sergei Loznitsa (Best Director, “Un Certain Regard,” Cannes) and Naomi Kawase (Grand Prix, Cannes). La Lucarne collaborated with this year's Cannes award-winning film 'The Image Book' by the legendary French director Jean Luc Godard.
For the first time, “La Lucarne” is commissioning a Bangladeshi production - “Onnodin… (Day After…),” a film-in-progress by Kamar Ahmad Simon.
Confirming the commission of “Onnodin…” for “La Lucarne,” the commissioning editor, Rasha Salti, recently wrote in a letter: "I am eager for Arte's audiences to discover an unsuspected representation and narrative of Bangladesh, the poetry, woes, ingenuity, steadfastness of everyday Bangladeshis, and the captivating talent of Kamar Ahmad Simon.”
“Onnodin…” is the second part of the ongoing water trilogy by Kamar with “Shunte Ki Pao!” being the first and “Aro Kichu Jibon” the last of the series. “Shunte Ki Pao! (Are You Listening!)” is one of the most acclaimed films made by the post-1971 generation film-makers. It won the Grand Prix in Cinema Du Reel in Paris, Golden Conch at the Mumbai International Film Festival, and the National Award as the best non-fiction film in Bangladesh.
In 2016, Kamar was awarded in Piazza Grande, the world cinema stage of Locarno Film Festival, for the best project of Open Doors Hub competition for the script of “Onnodin…” For the same script, last year Kamar was invited to Cannes along with his partner-producer Sara Afreen as one of the 15 teams of Cinefodation-Atelier.
Responding to the news, Kamar said: “Through Rasha, I came to know that in this cycle they selected only two film-makers: one of Jean Luc Godard's and the other is mine. This is very inspiring as well as challenging! I started the shooting of ‘Onnodin…’ in 2014, but the selection of ‘Shikolbaha’ in La Fabrique in Cannes forced me to discontinue. Later, I shot a bit in 2016 and again in 2017. If everything goes according to the plan, I will be able to wrap up the shooting by December."
