Latest news with #ProximaCompetition
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Sand City' Is a Kaleidoscopic Tale of Sand Thieves and Harsh Life in a Metropolis (Karlovy Vary Trailer)
Watch out, sand thieves are coming to the Proxima Competition of the 59th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) next month. Yes, you read that right: sand thieves! Bangladeshi screenwriter and director Mahde Hasan, who has made shorts I Am Time (2013), Death of a Reader (2017), and A Boring Film (2020), is bringing his feature film debut, Sand City, to the picturesque Czech spa town. More from The Hollywood Reporter 'Tehran Another View' Features Paintball, Carwalking, and a DJ Dressed up as the Joker (Karlovy Vary Trailer) APOS: Amazon Doubles Down on Dual Streaming Strategy in India with Prime Video and MX Player 'The Shining,' 'A Clockwork Orange,' 'Megalopolis' Costume Designer to Receive Locarno Vision Award The cinematic tale promises daring visuals, which are kaleidoscopic and often make the story, and life, feel like shattered glass. It also promises a thought-provoking dissection of life in a big city, in this case, Bangladesh's capital Dhaka, which has a reputation as one of the most densely populated cities in the world. The movie's logline can be understood in that context. 'Sand, an unstable element, reveals the life in a ruthless metropolis,' it reads. The protagonists of the two parallel stories told in the film are a woman from an ethnic minority, portrayed by Victoria Chakma in her screen debut, and a man who is a member of the majority population, played by Bangladeshi actor Mostafa Monwar. 'Emma and Hasan don't know each other, but they have much in common. Most importantly, they are both sand thieves,' reads a synopsis on the KVIFF website. 'Emma steals it for kitty litter, Hasan for making homemade glass. One day, their lives are disrupted by the discovery of a severed finger, and they learn that the human psyche can shatter as easily as glass.' In case you still expect a classic popcorn movie, the fest highlights the deeper and darker layers of human life that it explores. 'It is an oppressive portrait of a city full of sand, blended with a stylistically refined elegy about the flow of time, personal privacy, destruction, and the tear-filled valleys of our inner worlds,' it emphasizes. The cinematography of the film, for which Diversion is handling sales, comes from Mathieu Giombini, who has worked with such directors as Francois Ozon, Michel Piccoli, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, and Manoel de Oliveira. Director Hasan explains in a director's note that he wanted to 'explore the many facets of urban survival, fantasy, and sexuality,' while also 'exploring my own emotions' about the city and how it 'constantly occupies my thoughts and creations.' And he shares: 'I have been photographing this city and the lives within it for almost a decade now. At first, my gaze was romantic and celebratory till I decided to probe even deeper and look beyond the obvious. Then, I realized the inherent claustrophobia of living in the city; the lives of people as if they were all locked inside their own abyss.' Concludes Hasan: 'I witnessed how the passage of time suffocates our daily lives. We all seemed to be locked within a trap where there is a need to hide ourselves and never had the courage to come out as we are, to speak as we feel. There is almost a crisis of faith, wherein the people have stopped trusting and believing in better days.' He and Giombini opted for a look and feel inspired by some big names. 'Mahde and I have often mentioned the cinema of the Portuguese director Pedro Costa, for his particular treatment of shadows and directions of light, but also of the American director David Lynch, who manages so well to interfere with the irrational, even the fantastic, quite simply, without resorting to expensive special effects, which we couldn't afford anyway,' Giombini explains. The aesthetics fit with the 'fractured structure and form' that the director chose. 'Dhaka, the city where I dwell, is like a collage of broken glass,' filmmaker Hasan concludes. The trailer introduces the two people whose journey the movie follows and gives a first taste of the dreamy qualities of Sand City. 'There's no shortage of sand in this city,' protagonist Hasan is heard saying as he dreams of 'huge profits.' Watch the Sand City trailer below. Best of The Hollywood Reporter The 40 Best Films About the Immigrant Experience Wes Anderson's Movies Ranked From Worst to Best 13 of Tom Cruise's Most Jaw-Dropping Stunts
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
In ‘Renovation,' a Young Woman Feels the Pressure to Settle and Be Successful (Exclusive KVIFF Trailer)
Lithuanian filmmaker and editor Gabrielė Urbonaitė explores the pressures on young women in her feature directorial debut Renovation, which will world premiere in the Proxima Competition lineup of the 59th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The movie stars Žygimante Elena Jakštaitė (European Shooting Star 2021), Šarūnas Zenkevičius (European Shooting Star 2025) and up-and-coming Ukrainian talent Roman Lutskyi (Under the Volcano by Damian Kocur, 2024). The film's cinematographer Vytautas Katkus will also be in Karlovy Vary, premiering his directorial debut feature The Visitor in the festival's main competition. More from The Hollywood Reporter Jim Sheridan's 'Re-creation' Puts One of Ireland's Most Troubling Murder Cases Back on Trial Regina Hall, Ice Spice Join New 'SpongeBob' Movie ITV Studios Names Tim Carter Managing Director, Unscripted, U.K. Now, THR can exclusively reveal the first trailer for the movie about a young woman feeling the pressure to be settled and successful by the time she turns 30. Ilona, a perfectionist 29-year-old, lives in present-day Vilnius, Lithuania. 'At this turning point in her life, she begins to question how she truly wants to live. She moves into a seemingly perfect apartment with her boyfriend Matas, with whom things are getting serious,' reads a synopsis. 'But as the building's renovation begins, it's not just cracks in the walls that are revealed — Ilona's inner doubts also start to surface. She strikes up an unexpected friendship with Oleg, a Ukrainian construction worker. After spontaneously telling him she's a poet, she actually begins to write poetry.' But things threaten to get more dicey from there. 'Their connection deepens her uncertainty,' highlights the synopsis. 'Does she really want to settle down and start a family?' Urbonaitė is familiar with such creeping doubts. 'Renovation was born out of a personal sense of disorientation as I approached 30 — that feeling of being far from where you thought you'd be in life,' she explains. 'I wanted to explore the tension between freedom and pressure at this age: the openness to change and the growing realization that time and choices are limited. For my generation, this experience is shaped not only by global uncertainty but also by the lingering weight of Soviet-era traumas and the war unfolding on our doorstep. It's about navigating everyday life while constantly being reminded of its fragility.' Renovation was produced by Uljana Kim for Lithuania's Studio Uljana Kim, winner of the Eurimages International Co-production Award 2023 at the European Film Academy, Latvia's Mima Films and Belgium's Harald House. It is supported by the Lithuanian Film Center, the National Film Centre of Latvia, and LRT. Kim founded her production outlet in 1997 and has since produced and co-produced 37 fiction and documentary features. Its latest titles include Two Prosecutors by Sergei Loznitsa, which recently premiered in the Cannes Film Festival competition), Five and a Half Love Stories in an Apartment in Vilnius, Lithuania by Tomas Vengris, and Mariupolis 2 by Mantas Kvedaravičius. The trailer for Renovation shows a bit of home life, the start of a renovation, and some awkward social situations, including Ilona brainstorming a poem at – well, let's say an inopportune time, as you will see. Watch the trailer below. KVIFF 2025 takes place July 4-12 in the picturesque Czech spa town of Karlovy Vary. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 13 of Tom Cruise's Most Jaw-Dropping Stunts Hollywood Stars Who Are One Award Away From an EGOT 'The Goonies' Cast, Then and Now
