Rubaiyat Hossain is an acclaimed Bangladeshi filmmaker whose work explores social realities through a distinctly feminist perspective. Her films include Meherjaan, Under Construction and Made in Bangladesh, which earned international recognition and a National Film Award for Best Director. Her fourth feature, The Difficult Bride, marks another milestone as the first Bangladeshi film selected for the Orizzonti section of the Venice Film Festival. For Cut to Cinema, editor Bidhan Rebeiro spoke with Hossain about Venice, creative freedom and the growing international presence of Bangladeshi cinema. 1. Congratulations on The Difficult Bride ' ...
read more“To make a film is easy; to make a good film is war. To make a very good film is a miracle.” Over the past three decades, Alejandro González Iñárritu has established himself as one of modern cinema’s most visionary storytellers, creating films that transcend geographical and cultural boundaries while exploring universal themes of love, grief, guilt, redemption and survival. Born in Mexico City on August 15, 1963, Alejandro G. Iñárritu didn’t grow up following the traditional route into filmmaking. Before directing movies, he worked in many sectors that broadened his ' ...
read moreThere is a scene in Golapi Ekhon Traine that I keep thinking about whenever Amjad Hossain comes to mind. Golapi enters a first-class compartment and the passengers tell her this is first class, meant for first-class passengers, not people like her. She does not apologise or leave. She looks at them and says there is no class in Bangladesh, everyone belongs to the same class here. Of course, we know she is not literally right. Bangladesh is divided by money, education, manners and access, and that compartment makes the division ' ...
read moreThe noon of 13 August. A noon as dark as night. It was not only a devastating day for five families; a terrible afternoon descended upon our film community as well. We lost Tareque Bhai and Mishuk Bhai. In the same accident, we also lost the microbus driver, Mustafiz—whom my daughter Tantri used to call “Mocham”—Wasim Bhai, the production manager of Kagojer Phool, and Jamal, the craftsman who had come to build a mud house for the film. Dhali Al-Mamun Bhai and Catherine Masud were seriously injured. That day, ' ...
read moreThe City as a Living Character When a specific city becomes the repeated focus of cinema, it ceases to be a mere backdrop. Instead, it transforms into an active participant in the narrative—endowed with its own psychology, memory, and socio-cultural impact. The seismic shifts of history are often mirrored most vividly in these urban character studies. In Roberto Rossellini’s Rome, Open City, the post-war crisis and psychological fracture of Rome were powerfully laid bare. Decades later, Federico Fellini used that very same landscape in La Dolce Vita to map the existential emptiness ' ...
read moreCut to Cinema is a monthly magazine published from Dhaka, dedicated to exploring the world of film. Each issue dives into the latest releases, highlights visionary filmmakers, and examines the evolving trends shaping both global and local cinema. We invite you—our passionate readers—to join us on this cinematic journey.
View All Issues