Director: Shaheen Dill-Riaz
Country: Bangladesh
Language: Bengali
Year: 2025
Run Time: 100 mins
Sweeping Domestic Saga Shot over 14 Years Across Four Continents
When his sister marries her cousin and takes her new husband to Australia, Shaheen Dill-Riaz’s family begins to crack. To the great chagrin of their parents, this transgressive event begins to tear the family apart. Dill-Riaz decides to mediate between Mitul in Australia, his younger brother Tutul in US and his heartbroken parents back home in Dhaka. Scattered across four continents and shot over fourteen years, Past Is Present offers a sweeping domestic documentary of their attempt at reconciliation. A touching study in the tyrannies of distance, Past Is Present actualises the immortal struggle between the home and the world.
Director:
Born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Shaheen spent six years in Comilla Cadet College before turning his back on his parents’ wish that he join the army. At 19 he ventured into the independent film scene in Dhaka, moving to Berlin in 1992 on a cultural scholarship of the Goethe Institute. He studied at the Freie Universität Berlin History of Art and subsequently Cinematography at the Filmuniversität Babelsberg. Besides direction and cinematography of a number of award winning films, Shaheen also teaches as a guest professor at various Universities in Germany. In 2010 he was invited by the University of Konstanz and in 2016 by the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin as an annual fellow. He works with his multiple expertise in both Europe and Asia.
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