Good news for alternative cinema

Rubaiyat Hossain-directed “Under Construction” will have the honour of being the opening film at the 14th Dhaka International Film Festival (DIFF), to be held from January 14-22.

Hossain's second feature film, starring Indian actors Rahul Bose, Sahana Goswami and Mita Rahman among others, had recently won the top award at the Mindanao Festival in the Philippines.

The festival organisers expect to screen approximately 170 films from 55 countries. DIFF will have a competition section for Asian and Australian cinema and segment categories for: Retrospective, Cinema of the World, Children's Film, Women Filmmakers , Short and Independent Films, Spiritual Films and Scandinavian Countries Films.

Meanwhile, in more good news for Bangladeshi cinema, director Mostofa Sarowar Farooki is embarking on two more feature films, including his first on a family drama this year, after a two-year hiatus since making his last feature film “Pipra Bidya”.

The shoot of the family drama tentatively titled “No Bed of Roses” will start in February next with a cast yet to be finalised, says the director.

But one thing he makes clear is that while some of the cast would be those with whom he has worked before, some will be first-timers for him in it, for which Farooki says he is looking for a suitable Bangla title.

The other proposed film by Farooli is titled “No Land's Man” whose shooting begins in October this year and some of its sequences are likely to be shot in New York, according to the director.