The Bangladesh Oscar Committee has selected Mostofa Sarwar Farooki’s “No Bed of Roses” (“Doob”) as the country’s entry to the Oscars foreign language category. The film follows a renowned filmmaker who creates a scandal in Bangladesh when he leaves his wife and marries his daughter’s classmate.
Indian actor Irrfan Khan stars in and co-produced the film that also stars Nusrat Imrose Tisha (“Ayesha”,) Parno Mittra (“Ahare Mon”,) and Rokeya Prachy (“Kingdom of Clay Subjects”).
The film premiered in competition at the 2017 Shanghai International Film Festival; and subsequently at the Moscow International Film Festival where it won the Kommersant Weekend Prize. It also played the El Gouna, Busan, Vancouver and Kolkata festivals.
“Roses” was initially banned in Bangladesh on the grounds that it might be based on a revered real-life author and filmmaker. The ban was eventually lifted and the film released in October 2017 in Bangladesh, France, India and Australia.
Variety reviewer, Maggie Lee wrote: “The film ponders the big existential questions of why happiness never lasts and whether loneliness is a preexisting human condition. Directed with an assured and graceful touch that evokes the elegiac tone of a requiem, Mostofa Sarwar Farooki proves he’s a singular voice in Bangladeshi cinema.”
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“It’s a tough competition but let’s hope the film finds some love there,” Farooki told Variety. His previous films “Third Person Singular Number” and “Television” both represented the country.
