Bangladeshi filmmaker Abu Shahed Emon’s Japanese-language short Tenement of Secret Talk is competing at the 17th Fukuoka Independent Film Festival (FIDFF), running from October 3–5 at the Fukuoka Art Museum Museum Hall. The festival features 19 competition films alongside invited works from Japan, Bangladesh, Korea, and India under the theme “GOOD DAYS: Bursting Dreams, Seventeen”.
Founded in 2009, FIDFF provides a platform for independent filmmakers from Japan and abroad, offering screenings, post-show discussions, and networking opportunities. This year’s competition includes titles such as Goodbye Raifutei, My Father is Afraid of Water, Analog Boy and the Visiting Old Woman, Grandma’s Moving Day, LOCA! Gemini, A Premonition of a Story, and Becoming a Kappa.
Tenement of Secret Talk is a period drama (jidaigeki) developed through the Kyoto Filmmakers Lab under the Kyoto HISTORICA International Film Festival and shot at Kyoto’s Shochiku Studio. It follows a masterless samurai who, while awaiting his reward, receives a mysterious bottle of sake and learns an enigmatic story about a stone rumored to hold secrets.
The film has appeared at numerous Japanese festivals, including the Karatsu International Film Festival (2025), Hokkaido International Film Festival (2024), Iwatsuki Film Festival (2025), Niigata Indies Movie Festival (2024), Kumagaya Ekimae Short Film Festival (Excellence Award, 2025), Tsukuba Short Movie Competition (Runner-Up Prize, 2025), Tachikawa Meigazadori Cinema Festival (10th edition, 2024), Nasu Short Film Festival (2024), Hakodate Harbor Illumination Film Festival (2024), and Tokyo Arts Center Japan Video Grand Prix (2024). Internationally, it was screened at India’s South Asian Short Film Festival (SASFF, 2024) and the Japanese Film Festival Arizona (2024) in the United States.
Emon previously directed Jalal’s Story (2014), the first Bangladeshi film in Busan’s New Currents section, and produced Sincerely Yours, Dhaka (2018) and No Ground Beneath the Feet (2021), which represented Bangladesh at the Oscars in 2016, 2020, and 2023. His other producing credits include Komola Rocket (2018), Damal (2022), Paap Punyo (2022), Beauty Circus (2022), Roktojoba (2023), A House with No Names (2023), and Jaya Aar Sharmin (2025). He has also directed shorts such as The Container (2012), Arai Mon Shopno (2020), and the web series Mercules (2023).
Festival committee member Katsuichiro Ota said the 2025 competition includes “memorable works exploring family, friendship, individuality, minorities, and disability.” Representative Sachiko Harada added that the films “move hearts and inspire emotions that cannot be put into words,” noting that the festival continues to champion independent cinema with the same commitment as in its early years.