EXCLUSIVE: Beijing-based sales agent Rediance has boarded Japanese director Akio Fujimoto’s Rohingya refugee drama Lost Land, ahead of its premiere in Venice’s Horizons competition section.
The Japan-France-Malaysia-Germany collaboration is the first-ever Rohingya-language film, acted entirely by Rohingya.
The story follows a four-year-old boy and his nine-year-old sister who leave a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh on a perilous journey to reach Malaysia, in the hope of reuniting with their scattered family. They spend endless days on an overcrowded smugglers’ boat until an incident leaves them lost in Thailand.
More than 200 Rohingya people took part in the film, including the young siblings who play the main roles. None were trained actors.
“What makes this film extraordinary is that the Rohingya cast are telling their own stories, stories most of them have personally lived, which remain an ongoing reality for our people,” said co-producer Sujauddin Karimuddin of Malaysia-based Elom Initiatives.
Osaka-born director Fujimoto is known for his socially engaged cinema and has been working on films in Southeast Asia, particularly in Myanmar, for 12 years.
“I often heard about the repeated persecution endured by the Rohingya people. It was hard to believe that such cruelty exists in today’s world,” he says. “In Myanmar, speaking openly about the Rohingya was considered taboo so I remained silent, as I feared my professional consequences. That silence became a burden and led me to this film, Lost Land.”
Among the backers are Kazutaka Watanabe’s E.x.N K.K., who produced Fujimoto’s previous work, Angèle de Lorme’s Panorama Films and Elom Initiatives.
Fujimoto’s 2017 debut feature Passage Of Life was a Japan-Myanmar collaboration and winner of best feature and the Spirit of Asia’s best director award at Tokyo’s Asian Future section. It was followed by 2020’s Along The Sea, which premiered at San Sebastián, as he continued to explore themes of migration and identity.
The filmmaker was at the Berlinale in 2024 as part of a showcase of directors by Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs, where he began discussions about Lost Land with potential international partners.
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