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Variety is exclusively unveiling the trailer for “Lost Land” (“Harà Watan”), Japanese filmmaker Fujimoto Akio‘s deeply personal drama about Rohingya refugees that world premieres in the Horizons competition at the Venice Film Festival.
The film follows four-year-old Shafi and his nine-year-old sister Somira as they embark on a perilous journey from a refugee camp in Bangladesh to Malaysia, hoping to reunite with their scattered family. What begins as a treacherous boat voyage with fellow Rohingya refugees becomes a test of survival when an incident at sea leaves the siblings alone and lost in Thailand.
Fujimoto, whose previous films “Passage of Life” and “Along the Sea” explored migration themes, was moved to make the project after 12 years of working in Myanmar, where discussing the Rohingya is considered taboo.
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“That silence became a burden and led me to this film,” Fujimoto said in his director’s statement. “I felt strongly that I wanted to portray the journey of the Rohingya people as they leave their homeland in search of a place where they can live in peace.”
The drama, shot in the Rohingya language, features over 200 Rohingya people, including the brother and sister who play the leads. Most had personally experienced similar journeys to those depicted in the film, though none were trained actors.
“The weight of their lived experience gave an unmistakable strength and authenticity to their presence on screen,” Fujimoto noted.
Co-producer Sujauddin Karimuddin, a Rohingya human rights activist, emphasized the film’s significance as “the first-ever Rohingya-language movie, acted entirely by Rohingya.”
“At a time when genocidal forces are working to erase not only the Rohingya people but also our language, our music, and our very existence, this film stands as an act of language preservation, resistance, remembrance, and truth-telling,” Karimuddin said.
The international co-production brings together Japan, France, Malaysia and Germany, with cinematography by Kitagawa Yoshio, known for his collaborations with Oscar-winner Hamaguchi Ryusuke on films including “Evil Does Not Exist.” Music is composed by Ernst Reijseger, who has worked extensively with Werner Herzog.
“Lost Land” is produced by Watanabe Kazutaka through E.x.N K.K., with co-producers including Angèle de Lorme (Panorama Films), Karimuddin (Elom Initiatives), Elise Shick (Cinemata), Christian Jilka (Scarlet Visions), and Eric Nyari (Cineric Creative). Additional production companies include Dongyu (Kunizane Mizue) and KinemaTowards (Yasukawa Shogo). International sales are handled by Rediance.
Watch the trailer here:
