How a Bangladeshi film uses sand to explore the ‘fragility of urban, modern life’

Sand City mines the fantastic from the ordinary. Bangladeshi filmmaker Mahde Hasan’s riveting feature debut follows two lonely individuals in Dhaka who share a preoccupation with sand.

Hassan (Mostafa Monwar) pilfers samples of silica sand, limestone and soda ash from his workplace so that he may set up a glass factory of his own someday. Emma (Victoria Chakma) needs the sand for her cat’s litterbox.

They prowl about like feral creatures, retreating from the city’s chaos and congestion to their homes to examine their loot. The sand throws up unexpected objects – a mobile phone for Hassan, and a female finger with a crimson-shaded nail for Emma.

Sand City is among the titles at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (April 23-26). The 100-minute movie is awaiting a release in Bangladesh.

Also written and edited by Mahde Hasan and brilliantly shot by Mathieu Giombini, Sand City is a leading example of what film scholars call urban sensorium cinema – movies that mesh together a city’s diverse architectural elements, modes of housing, criss-crossing movements, lighting textures and fragmented modes of living.

Before Sand City, Mahde Hasan directed a few acclaimed short films. The 39-year-old filmmaker spoke to Scroll about why he chose sand as a leitmotif for an exploration of big-city blues, and why his film is both typical and...

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