Abdullah Mohammad Saad’s movie ‘Rehana Maryam Noor’ finally premiered under Un Certain Regard of Cannes Film Festival 2021. The event took place on the last Wednesday, July 7 at Bangladesh time 3:15 pm. After the premiere, the audiences of the Sal Dubusi Theater in the Cane Pale Do Festival center gave a standing ovation to Saad’s team. It is a great achievement for Saad as the first Bangladeshi filmmaker to be in the Cannes’ official selection.

Who is Abdullah Mohammad Saad? A Glimpse of His Personal Life

Abdullah Mohammad Saad was born in Chittagong in 1985. He spent his childhood in an extended family along with three elder sisters. Before his inception in the movie industry, he was a student of didactics at the Education and Research Institute of Dhaka University.

36-year-old Saad loves to be out of any exposure. Even in this era of social media, he doesn’t carry any sort of online engagement. This effect is also quite evident in his movie career.

Read ‘Rehana Maryam Noor’ Review: The Bangladeshi movie screened in 74th Cannes Film Festival

He prefers to get introduced by his creation over his name. He has been skipping all kinds of presence in broadcasting media ever since he started his journey in the film industry. Even after his movie getting selected in the Cannes film fest, he didn’t share any of his words until the final premiere show. Unlike everyone being desperate to be viral, his averse-to-publicity attitude is remarkable.

Saad’s Film Direction Career: Emerge of the Talented Bangladeshi Filmmaker

The young filmmaker Saad has his own film production company. During the study, he has written screenplays for TV dramas and made some short films also.

The renowned producer Wahid Tareq made ‘Alga Nongor’ where the scriptwriter was Saad. His notable writings are 'Little Angel I Am Dying', 'August-e Lekha Golposhomogro', and ‘Akti Jothajotho Mrittu'. The TV dramas were made based on these stories under the direction of Wahid Tareq in 2009.

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Saad made his first step in the full-length feature film direction with 'Live from Dhaka'. This black and white film tells the story of a disabled person who is trying to get out of Dhaka city. The movie premiered in the 27^th Singapore International Film Festival (SIFF) on December 2, 2016. For this film, Saad bagged the Silver Screen Award for ‘Best Director’ in 2016. The ‘Best Performance’ Award went to Mostafa Monwar. What is more? SIFF nominated this movie for the best Asian feature film.

This film was also showcased in International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) in 2017 under the category "Premieres in Bright Future". Additionally, it got the nomination for the new Asian cinema award as the best film at the Five Flavor Asian Film Festival. Saad’s 'Live from Dhaka' created a vibe in the Bangladeshi movie community.

Moreover, this creative filmmaker contributed in making a short drama ‘Pasher Ghor’ (2016) along with Anjan Sarkar Jimy.

Saad’s latest creation ‘Rehana Maryam Noor’ became a piece of Bangladesh among the multilingual films in the 74^th Cannes Film Fest. He himself has been worked in both the direction and screenplay writing.

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He took preparations for a long time to shoot this film. In a closed set, he had to go through lots of difficulties to shoot the movie within five weeks. Capturing about hundred shots per day in the same place was not so easy. As all the shots have been filmed with a 50mm lens, Saad had to take into account every tiny thing.

As a creative director, Saad skillfully engaged a group of young talented professionals to complete the whole work of the movie ‘Rehana Maryam Noor’. The rising star Azmeri Haque Badhon starred the major role of the film. Ali Afzal Ujjal worked in production design, Nabila Haque in costume design, Tuhin Tamizul in cinematography, Shaib Talukder in sound design, Masum Mehdi in art direction, and Chinmoy Roy in color combination.

The film was produced by Jeremy Chua of Singaporean company Protocol in association with Metro Video. Sensemakers Productions, Adnan Habib, Saidul Haque Khandaker, and Rajiv Mahajan were in the co-production. A German-based company named Films Boutique contracted for the worldwide promotion of this Bangladeshi movie.

In an interview given to Variety, Saad explains the perspective of his filmmaking. He doesn’t claim to depict the social phenomena. However, when he thinks of the characters, the contextual presence of society naturally comes.

Read Rehana Maryam Noor: The Bangladeshi Film in the prestigious list of Cannes

Rehana Maryam Noor: Saad’s Flawless Masterpiece is Praised in 74^th Cannes

An emotional moment was created right after the premiere inside the Sal Dubusi Theater filled with audiences. When everyone stood up and started clapping for them, Azmeri Haque Badhon, broke down in tears of joy. As a matter of fact that it was obvious, as every member of the ‘Rehana Maryam Noor’ team did their best to perfect this unorthodox story-telling.

Abdullah Mohammad Saad and Azmeri Haque Badhan received applause with heartfelt gratefulness from the audiences. During the show, the Singaporean producer Jeremy Chua, executive producer Ehsanul Babu, cinematographer Tuhin Tamizul, production designer Ali Afzal Ujjal, sound engineer Shaib Talukder, and colorist Chinmoy Roy were also present at the gallery.

The Hollywood reporter Deborah Young has described the Rehana character as “the unbending teacher out of hell”.

Read Rehana Maryam Noor screened at Cannes amid standing ovation

All in all, this suspenseful film portrayed Rehana Maryam Noor as a fighter against social injustice. This movie showed how an ordinary female teacher – who is also a single mother – can take an unyielding stand for the oppressed ones. The story of this film centers upon Rehana, a medical college teacher, whose life takes a drastic turn when she faces an offensive incident involving a female student in her college. Despite the hustles of her personal life, she desperately fights to the end to get justice for her student.

All the artists of ‘Rehana Maryam Noor’ have done their level best in this 108 minutes movie. Besides Badhon, the other major casts of this film include Saberi Alam, Afia Tabassum Varna, Afia Zahin Jaima, Yasir Al Haq, Avradit Chowdhury, Kazi Sami Hasan, Farzana Bithi, Jopari Louis, Khushiyara Khushboo Oni, and Jahed Chowdhury Mithu.

In a nutshell

‘Rehana Mayam Noor’ is a reflection of the social patriarchy in Bangladesh. Much such oppression keep still unanswered. The film has provided a great lesson to get rid of it. Meanwhile, it can give a spark to a revolutionary change of traditional filmmaking in Bangladesh. In this case, Abdullah Mohammad Saad set a guideline as a pioneer. Now his movie is competing with other films in the Cannes film festival 2021 for Palme d’Or.

Read First Bangladeshi film in Cannes' Un Certain Regard: After Matir Moyna, 'Rehana Maryam Noor' makes history