Are You Listening!

Shunte Ki Pao!

DIRECTOR: Kamar Ahmad Simon COUNTRY: Bangladesh YEAR: 2012 LANGUAGE(S): Bengali SUBTITELS: English RUNNING TIME: 90 min

SECTION: Films from Bangladesh 2015

SYNOPSIS

By the coastal belts of Bangladesh, in a small village named Sutarkhali, Rakhi lives with her husband Soumen (32) and their son Rahul (6). Fighting against all the odds of the woods, along with around a 100 families, they cultivate the land for generations. On May 25, 2009 when Rahul is only 4 years old, a tidal surge hits the coastal belts of Bangladesh. For Rakhi, Soumen and Rahul life is not the same anymore. ARE YOU LISTENING! is about Rakhi’s hope to ensure a dignified future for her son Rahul. It’s about her jobless husband SOUMEN’s frustration for failing to provide for his family and about a community’s struggle to get back the land they have lost.
Seasons change topography, even relations… Yet after the rain … They go out with spades and shovels to reclaim the life again.

KAMAR AHMAD SIMON
Kamar was born and brought up in the old lanes of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. Conservative social structure characterized his early childhood. Film became a window for him when he came across masterpieces like BICYCLE THIEVES, CINEMA PARADISO, and ’KOYAANISQATSI in local festivals. Since there was no institution offering
formal film education in Bangladesh, he enrolled into architecture to pursue his childhood dream. After his graduation, he opted for a career as Art Director in advertising. Yet through this time his passion for films persisted and it even grew bigger. In 2008 Kamar quit a rewarding career in advertising to join the one and only Cannes award winning director from Bangladesh Tareque Masud as his Chief AD for his unfinished mega-period THE PAPER FLOWER. ARE YOU LISTENING! is his debut feature that won him the Grand Prix at 35th Cinema du réel and the Jury Award in Film Southasia. It was screened at IDFA, Dok-Leipzig and other leading festivals too. His first fiction script, ’Silence of the Seashell’ received Göteborg Script Development grant. For the passion of Independent Filmmaking, Kamar has initiated a number of national and international film festivals, seminars and workshops in Bangladesh. He is the founder of ’Filmy-Bahas’ – the only active email group involved in filmy discourse in Bangladesh.
Kamar regularly contributes in local publications advancing the local film industry debate in global context and loves part-time teaching in film studies.

FILMOGRAPHY
Are you Listening! (2012) (2012)

PRODUCER: Sara Afreen CAMERA: Kamar Ahmad Simon EDITOR: Saikat Sekhareswar Ray

PRODUCTION: Beginning Production WORLD SALES: Cat & Docs