A first trailer has been unveiled for Bangladeshi filmmakers Mostofa Sarwar Farooki and Nusrat Imrose Tisha‘s “Something Like an Autobiography.”
The film has its world premiere at the Busan International Film Festival, where it is in the prestigious Jiseok competition.The film follows Dhaka-based married couple, the filmmaker Farhan (Farooki) and actor Tithi (Tisha), who are under societal pressure to have a baby. Tithi conceives and towards the end of her pregnancy term an incident occurs that throws into sharp relief some realities of contemporary Bangladeshi society.
The title, a nod to Kurosawa Akira’s celebrated memoir, is also reflective of the real lives of Farooki and Tisha, a real-life celebrity couple who are the most recognized filmmaker and actor in Bangladesh, respectively.
Farooki previously directed and Tisha starred in “Television,” which closed Busan in 2012. More of the couple’s collaborations have played at Busan.
The screenplay of “Something Like an Autobiography” was written by Farooki and Tisha, who also serves as a producer alongside Redoan Rony for Bangladeshi streamer Chorki, Anna Katchko and Nina Lath. The film is part of Chorki’s 12-film “Ministry of Love” anthology.
“I make a film simply because I have something to say on a particular subject. I just can’t make a film just for the sake of telling a story. I need to bephilosophically attached to the subject. In that way, the story of the others becomes my personal story. That’s why I always say all my films are autobiographical. But for this film, we are the subject. I think the pandemic must have contributed in guiding our thought process. The time of pandemic was probably the time of self reflection. And that’s when we started writing this script together,” Farooki told PvNew.
Tisha added, “Farooki’s films are generally self-reflective. Many of his life stories and anecdotes can be found in his films. But this time we knew the subject has to be us, and the cast had to be us too. For us, acting in the lead roles of this story is part of the creative expression. Any other actors playing these roles would have created completely different meanings.”
The film seamlessly blends the personal and the political and melds romantic comedy and social drama.
Farooki said, “We pretty much tried to tell a sort of love story. A love story between a couple, a love story about their dreams and desires. But love stories are in a way the stories of vulnerabilities too. ‘Something Like an Autobiography’ is essentially the story of our vulnerabilities as humans, as couples, as citizens, as potential parents and as two lost souls swimming in a patriarchal fish bowl year after year. It can seem a political film maybe because it’s extremely personal. Because personal is political.”
“I look at this film as my love letter to my daughter Ilham. When she will grow up and get a chance to watch the film, I hope she will hear me whispering to her ears ‘This is the world you have arrived in. Do your best to bring about a change just so your children arrive in a much different world than where you have arrived’,” Farooki added.
Tisha said, “This film is very close to my heart. Not just because this is my first attempt as a co-writer. This film deals with very tender moments of lives which is very dear to me. Most of the audience will be able to relate very easily. Specially the female audience will feel the moments of the film differently. The same film can speak to two different people differently based on their experiences, genders, colors etc. As a woman, I want to see these kind of stories made more often. Women have long been subjected to many questions. Questions never end for a woman. Now time has come for us to throw some questions instead.”
Watch the trailer here:
