‘Sand City’, the latest feature from Bangladeshi filmmaker Mahde Hasan, has continued its impressive festival run by securing the Henry Barakat Award for Best Artistic Contribution at this year’s Cairo International Film Festival.
Screened in the grandeur of the Cairo Opera House’s Grand Hall for its Africa and Arab premiere, the film arrived with considerable anticipation and left with even greater acclaim. Produced by Rubaiyat Hossain and Aadnan Imtiaz Ahmed under the Khona Talkies banner, with Cinema Cocoon as a production partner, Hasan’s haunting drama has been steadily carving out a name for itself on the global circuit.
Rather than following a conventional narrative, Sand City lingers on two individuals whose lives are curiously tethered to sand. Emma (played by Victoria Chakma) comes across a severed finger while gathering cat litter, a discovery that spirals into an unsettling obsession. At the same time, Hasan (Mostafa Monwar) quietly siphons off sand from a washing plant to craft his own glass, gradually slipping into an increasingly perilous dream of building an empire from his homemade creations.
The film’s audacity and eerie lyricism have drawn widespread praise. Its Cairo win follows an earlier triumph at the 59th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, where it took home the coveted Proxima Grand Prix; a clear sign that Sand City is fast becoming one of the year’s standout international titles.
