Sand and Water
Jibon Jole-Bele
BANGLADESH / 2002 / Bengali, English / Color / Video / 109 min
Director, Photography: Shaheen Dill-Riaz
Editing: Dietmar Kraus
Sound: Wolfgang Amrein, Kamrul Hasan Khosru
Production: Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen Konrad Wolf
Production Company, Source, World Sales: Sonimage
BANGLADESH: House No. 7, Road No. 9A, Sector No.7 Uttara, Dhaka 1230
GERMANY: Codowieckistrasse 6/1, 10405 Berlin
Phone: 49-30-44035081 Fax: 49-1212-5-286-31-841
E-mail: dill-riaz@web.de URL: www.sonimage.de
The shoals of the Jamuna River are immersed under water during the monsoon season and transformed into a desert landscape in the winter. Despite these extreme conditions, the Chaura people who make their home here are upbeat and have no desire to leave. A young man sings on a boat: “The air is good, the people get along.” During the dry season, over 100 jars of water must be carried every day, but still the family delights in splitting a watermelon. A Bangladeshi director educated in Germany presents a portrait of happiness in his homeland, often depicted as a tragic land afflicted by floods.
[Director’s Statement] Sand and Water is a journey to a place nicknamed “The Deadly Paradise” by people from the Bangladeshi mainland. I try to describe this fragile world from a personal point of view using poetic images. It is a world where people still try to live with nature in spite of its cruel violence.
Shaheen Dill-Riaz
Born in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 1969. Active in the Film Society in Bangladesh from 1988 and served as organizer of the International Short Film Festival Dhaka until 1991. Involved in the short film movement in Dhaka in the late 1980s. Studied German at the Goethe-Institut in Dhaka from 1989 to 1991, arrived in Berlin on a scholarship from the Goethe Institut Berlin in February 1992 and has lived in Germany since. Studied art history, Indian art history, and theater at the Freie Universität Berlin until 1994, and has since studied in the department of cinematography at the Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen Konrad Wolf in Potsdam-Babelsberg. Completed master’s degree in February 2002. Filmography: One Day, Everyday (1995), and Eye Hears, Ear Sees (1998). |
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• New Asian Currents | Sand and Water | Wellspring | Three-Five People | Homesick | The Circle’s Corner | The Maze of Lanes | Nee Engey—Where Are You | NEW (IMPROVED) DELHI—Director’s Cut | A Night of Prophecy | 150 Seconds Ago | The Ballad of Life | Noah’s Ark | The Old Man of Hara | Dandelion | Hibakusha—At the End of the World | 3rd Vol.2—2 Light House | And Thereafter | Dust Buries Sabuk | Family Project: House of a Father | Edit | Gina Kim’s Video Diary | Ordo | Her and Him Van Leo | The Big Durian | Perpetual Motion | Debris | Hard Good Life | Nail | The Rhythm in Wulu Village | A Short Journey • Jurors | Kim Dong-won | Kawase Naomi • New Asian Currents Special | Part 1 | Part 2 |