‘Adim’ wins at Queens World Film Festival

Bangladeshi filmmaker Juboraj Shamim’s Adim won ‘Best Film’ at the 12th Queens World Film Festival.

The festival centres on independent films from around the world.

The winners had been announced through a YouTube Live.

Preston Cato, Artistic Director of Queens World Film Festival, announced the winner of ‘Best of the Fest’ at the end of the live show on November 5, 2022.

After announcing Adim as the winner, Preston praised Juboraj, saying:

“I have never seen anything like this in my life.

“The movie feels so surreal, it touches your soul. You can actually feel the emotions of the people.

“It didn’t feel like I was watching a fiction, the whole thing felt like I was watching a glimpse of the dark and desolate reality of people living in slums.”

Juboraj Shamim wished to go to the USA to participate in the Queens World Film Festival. However, his visa was refused, and thus he had to watch the whole thing live on YouTube.

The young director has plans to release his movie in February 2023 but he believes that releasing films like Adim won’t be an easy task in Bangladesh.

Recently, Bangladesh has been experimenting with realism when it comes to films and many directors are having second thoughts while releasing films in cinemas if they do not have a typical commercial storyline.

Meanwhile, Adim was screened on November 6 at the Queen’s World Film Festival.

The awards will be officially announced on November 7. Teacher and journalist, Dithi Hasnat, will receive the award on behalf of Juboraj Shamim.

The film has been scoring numerous awards for its realistic portrayal of slums and hard-hitting concepts.

Juboraj also won two awards at the 44th Moscow International Film Festival.

Production of Adim began on August 9, 2017.

Amir Hamza was the cinematographer and Sujon Mahmud was in charge of the sound and colour units under the production house  ‘Roshayon’ of Juboraj Shamim.

The 84-minute Bangladesh-Netherlands co-production features no big-budget stars. The cast members are the inhabitants of the Tongi slum where Juboraj shot the film.

At times the police would suspect him as a drug dealer, and at other times drug dealers would allege that he is an undercover reporter, during his seven-month stay at the slum.

They take viewers for a hyper-realistic ride in their slum. It is a detailed depiction of Bangladeshi slum life and its norms that viewers haven’t seen yet on the big screen.