Moving Bangladesh, Making Waves

Exemplifying the day-to-day struggle of Dhaka city dwellers, Nuhash Humayun's is set to start shooting for his feature film "Moving Bangladesh".

Being the first film to bag the BDT 76 lakhs from the Taipei Film Fund, the productions embodies the boredom of being stuck in traffic for hours and how a simple idea of ride sharing transformed the scenario for students, job-holders and entrepreneurs.

In a candid chat with The Daily Star, Nuhash shares how he came up with this concept, and developed it over time, his expectations from this venture, and more.

"Moving Bangladesh" is based on ride sharing app Pathao's becoming. However, Pathao will not have any creative or financial stake on the project. "This is a creative work of fiction based on facts," he shares.

The international project is a supported by Arifur Rahman and Bijon Imtiaz from Bangladesh's Goopy Bagha Productions, Bich-Quan Tran from France's Dissidenz Films and Patrick Mao Huang from Taiwan's Flash Forward Entertainment.

Following the fame brought to Nuhash by "Sincerely Yours, Dhaka", the director took a time of two years during this pandemic to develop the script of "Moving Bangladesh".

Concept Art by Shafayet Nabi Tamal.

"When I visited the Busan International Film Festival, I realised most of the questions that came my way were about Bangladesh, not even my film. I thought it could be interesting to depict the cultural shift that's happening right now in terms of the South Asian start-up scene. Solving local problems are becoming a global phenomenon."

Nuhash's "Moving Bangladesh" has already managed to keep uplift hopes as it made way some of the most prestigious platforms including Film Independent's Producer Lab 2022, Cannes Marche du Film 2021, Locarno Film Festival's Open Doors Consultancy 2020 and NFDC Film Bazaar Coproduction Market 2020.

"I was sitting in my bedroom, hyperactively describing the sights, sounds and world of 'Moving Bangladesh' to the Taipei Film Fund committee over Zoom, while my words were simultaneously being translated to Taiwanese. It was surreal," laughs Nuhash.

"It's not the amount, it's the respect that comes with Taipei Film Commission backing 'Moving Bangladesh' that fills me with joy" he mentions.

The director is looking for fresh faces for this production. "Echoing the theme of innovation, I was looking for a bit of origination in casing too. Thus, like all my productions, this film will treasure a combination the expertise of veteran artistes while a tint of freshness from young performers," concludes a hopeful Nuhash.