by FilmInk Staff
Following its world premiere at the 48th Moscow International Film Festival and a subsequent selection at the Kazan International Film Festival, the Bangladesh-Australia feature King in the Land of the Princess has now been officially selected for the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne.
Directed by Asif Islam, the film is believed to be the first feature-length production of its kind between Bangladesh and Australia. It is produced by RedMark Films in association with Screenxcope Australia, with global sales handled by Screenxcope.
Blending docu-drama with live performance, King in the Land of the Princess is set within a makeshift rural opera environment and explores the erosion of Jatra, Bengal’s centuries-old folk theatre tradition through the story of Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah, a veteran performer navigating a cultural shift where audience attention is increasingly fragmented and harder for tradition to sustain itself.
Based on true events and the life of veteran Jatra artist Arabinda Majumdar, the film was shot across seven consecutive nights in front of live audiences, merging staged narrative with real-time performance to create a raw and unpredictable cinematic experience that captures both the immediacy of theatre and the shared energy of a live audience.
The cast also includes Ashna Habib Bhabna, Satej Chowdhury, Mahmud Alam, A.K. Azad Shetu, Salauddin Sheikh and Jannatul Baker Khan. Written by Leon, Asif Islam and Jaganmoy Paul, the film also sees Islam serving as Director of Photography and Editor, with Sukanta Majumdar as Sound Designer. Islam’s debut feature Nirvana previously won the Special Jury Award at the 46th Moscow International Film Festival.
King in the Land of the Princess is produced by Asif Islam and Sakib Iftekhar, with Dr. Zakir Hossain Raju as co-producer and Jannatul Baker Khan as executive producer.
Producer and Screenxcope founder Sakib Iftekhar said the Australian selection carries particular significance. “After Moscow and Kazan, bringing the film back home feels deeply meaningful. IFFM offers an important platform for South Asian cinema in Australia, and this selection also recognises the growing creative relationship between Bangladesh and Australia.”
Director Asif Islam said the film emerged from witnessing the gradual disappearance of a performance tradition that once held enormous cultural power.
“To see the film travel across countries and find new audiences is incredibly rewarding. Jatra may be rooted in Bengal, but the struggle between tradition, commerce and changing audience expectations is universal.”
Co-producer and film academic Dr. Zakir Hossain Raju added, “Jatra has long functioned as a space of collective memory and socio-political expression. The film records not simply its decline, but its transformation under new cultural and economic pressures.”
The IFFM selection marks the latest step in the film’s international festival journey, bringing a distinctly Bengali story of performance, memory and cultural change to Australian audiences.
