Another big festival nod for “Doob”

Mostofa Sawar Farooki's “Doob” (English title “No Bed of Roses”) may be in censor board limbo in Bangladesh, but that has not stopped the film gaining some serious momentum in the international film festival circuit. After getting shortlisted for the main competition at this month's Moscow International Film Festival, “Doob” has now broken into the main competition of the Shanghai International Film Festival, vying for the Golden Goblet Award. 

“Doob”, that stars prodigious Indian actor Irrfan Khan in the lead, has no release date yet in Bangladesh after its No-Objection Certificate was revoked in February a day after it was issued by a government committee for reviewing joint-venture films. 

The festival runs from June 17 to June 25, with winners announced on the closing night. Farooki, cast members Irrfan Khan, Nusrat Imrose Tisha and Parno Mittra, producers Ashok Dhanuka, Abdul Aziz, and Himanshu Dhanuka will represent the film at the festival. 

“Doob” will be up against some stiff competition at one of Asia's most heavyweight festivals, including “The Chinese Widow” by Palm d'Or and Oscar winner Bill August (“Pele the Conqueror famed”), among other films from Germany, USA, Russia, China, Iran, India, Philippines, Romania, Poland, Italy, Japan, and UK. “The Chinese Widow” was also named the opening film of the festival, replacing master Hong Kong filmmaker Ann Hui's Our Time will Come”. 

The Shanghai Festival earlier announced its jury at this year's Cannes, led by Cristian Mungiu, often called the poster boy of Romanian new wave cinema. Oscar-winning Gary Michael Walters (“Whiplash”), Golden Lion winner US/Macedonian filmmaker Milcho Manchevski, Chinese director Cao Baoping, Chinese screenwriter Li Qiang, Japanese director Sabu, and Chinese actress Xu Qing will join Christian in the international jury. 

The festival will also feature competition sections dedicated to documentary filmmaking and animation, and will also show a retrospective of classic Disney animation films.