Bangladeshi cinema-sphere buzzed again as the poster and a short but power-packed 2:21-minute trailer for Roid were released. The visuals, unveiled on Tuesday, quickly caught the attention of both viewers and industry insiders, confirming the return of a collaboration that had once redefined notions of local storytelling.
Directed by popular filmmaker Mejbaur Rahman Sumon and featuring renowned screen performers Nazifa Tushi as a couple reuniting after their sexually charged presence in Hawa. With Roid, the partnership seems poised to dive even further in — artistically, emotionally, and thematically.
Sumon’s first feature, Hawa, released three years ago, was both a commercial success and critically acclaimed for its atmospheric storytelling and bold narrative voice. Following a long creative dormancy, Roid’s long-awaited sophomore feature puts its stamp on the market – and from early accounts, it sounds like a filmmaker returning more confident, more mature.
The trailer for Roid doesn’t seem in any big hurry to tell its story. Instead, it gradually confines its viewers to a haunted cinematic universe defined primarily by mood, texture, and silence. Hawa has led many to believe that the film will mark a far more nuanced and introspective phase in Sumon’s moviemaking career, one that will carry forward the mythopoeic touch of Hawa but also delve deeper into emotion.
Roid is, in essence, very personal. The storyline, Sumon says, is based on his childhood memories, and there were two such prominent personalities in his life during those years who inspired him to write it, while his mother equally contributed. The movie is about Sadu, his lunatic wife, and a palm tree near their house; an image of an ancient folk tale reinterpreted in today’s world and viewed from up close.
One of the film’s most significant challenges was translating it into a production design. Almost 50,000 trees were planted over months to make the village look real. Instead of being bound to established locales, pivotal spaces were explicitly built for this story — a surprising attention to both visual and emotional details (remember this is indeed BD cinema you’re watching).
Nazifa Tushi’s Roid look is already in talks. As the “mad wife” of Sadu, she had a gruelling physical and psychological transformation. She went without make-up for one and a half years, and changed her skin tone, teeth and voice when required to attain realism. ‘Playing Roid is the most challenging character I have played in my career,’ Tushi was quoted as saying, a comment that only does more for excitement and suspense.
And now furthering (or solidifying) the film’s clout, Roid has been chosen to screen in the Tiger Competition of one of the world’s most prestigious festivals for auteur cinema, the International Film Festival Rotterdam. The choice is a huge vindication for Sumon and for Bangladeshi cinema on the global stage.
Part flea market, part blast from the past, Roid is a memory-machine built on myth and meticulous craft; it’s definitely more than just a film. For viewers who came off the aftertaste of Hawa, this new sojourn is reassuringly familiar and tantalizingly unknown.