Canadian Premiere
The Rocket—actually a rather placid paddle steamer—has been ferrying rich and poor through the wide, slow, shallow rivers of Bangladesh for the best part of a century. Kamar Ahmad Simon’s kinetic and artfully chaotic film is a travelogue with staged elements. In this hybrid fiction blended with reality, actors impersonate student journalists who record an interview with a couple of government politicians (also actors); a YouTuber vlogs his journey with manufactured rapture (cinephiles may think of Geraldine Chaplin’s BBC reporter in Altman’s Nashville); and a deck passenger angrily confronts the steward blocking his access to toilets reserved for the cabin class. If Kamar has laced this two-day odyssey with sociopolitical commentary, you could be forgiven for taking everything at face value: the movie has the electrical charge of observational documentary, the camera drifts across faces, personalities, landscapes, jokes, squabbles, songs, and then moves on. It’s a snapshot of an entire country, so vivid you can smell it.
Delightful… Simon documents the journey with both geographical and sociopolitical fascination, drinking in the scenery while wryly observing the tangle of classes, castes and character types on deck. The loose, entertaining result is equal parts leisurely travelogue, observational social study and droll real-life comedy of errors.”—Guy Lodge, Variety
Harrell Award for the best film in Camden International Film Festival (CIFF) 2022
Media Partner
Kazi Md. Mohsin, Abdullah Al-Mamun, Ariful Islam, Tuhin Kanti Das, Surjo Polas, Noor-I-Naznin, Oniruddho Ratan
Bangladesh/France/Norway
2021
In Bengali with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Democracy Under Siege
As the USA turns 250, Oscar-nominated director Laura Nix considers the roots of the current political crisis with commentary from historian Heather Cox Richardson, progressive politician Jamie Raskin, and cartoonist Ann Telnaes, among others.
Everybody to Kenmure Street
This rousing documentary (100% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) never puts a foot wrong as it recreates a tense, prolonged stand-off between the police and the citizens of Glasgow when an Immigration Enforcement squad attempt to arrest two men from their homes.
Boyz n the Hood
Twenty-three-year-old writer-director John Singleton's groundbreaking portrait of three young men growing up in South Central is a film of integrity and compassion. It's a far richer portrait of Black lives than Hollywood's gangsta exploitation pics.
Romería
An orphan from a young age, 18-year-old Marina intends to pursue a university scholarship. The application, however, requires the signatures of her paternal grandparents, compelling her to embark on a pilgrimage and seek out the family she has never met.
Peter Asher: Everywhere Man
A chart topping pop star as one half of Peter and Gordon, Peter Asher was brother to Jane, brother in law to Paul McCartney, ran the Beatles' Apple, produced and managed James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, and 10,000 Maniacs, to name just a few. He did it all.
Credits
Producer
Sara Afreen
Screenwriter
Kamar Ahmad Simon
Cinematography
Kamar Ahmad Simon
Editor
Saikat Sekhareswar Ray
Original Music
Saikat Sekhareswar Ray
Director
Photo by Saiful Islam Soikat
Kamar Ahmad Simon
Kamar Ahmad Simon’s debut Are You Listening! (2012) won the Grand Prix in Cinéma du Réel in Paris and the Golden Conch at the Mumbai International Film Festival. His script for Day After… was awarded at Locarno Film Festival’s Open Doors Hub and won the Arte International Open Doors Prize in 2016. The Museum of the Moving Image in New York and the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland have screened his work. Kamar has been a jury member in the Sydney Film Festival.
Filmography: Are You Listening! (2012); Neel Mukut (2021)