Bhabna-starrer ‘King: In the Land of the Princess’ heads to Kazan Int’l Film Festival

Following its screening at the 48th Moscow International Film Festival, Bangladeshi feature film “King: In the Land of the Princess” is now set to travel to Russia’s 22nd Kazan International Film Festival, scheduled to take place from September 4 to 8. The film is directed by Asif Islam.

“King: In the Land of the Princess” has been selected for the festival’s Russia–Islamic World section and will also compete for the For Cultural Dialogue in the Islamic World Award.

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The film explores the challenges and realities facing Bangladesh’s traditional jatra theatre. At its centre is Princess Rozi, a dancer who becomes the focal point of a travelling jatra troupe as audience demand increasingly revolves around her performances. Through her story, the film examines changing social tastes and evolving forms of popular entertainment. Filming was completed in January last year on a specially constructed jatra set in Gobindapur, Faridpur.

Actress Ashna Habib Bhabna plays the lead role of Princess Rozi. Apart from Bhabna, most of the cast comprises practising jatra performers.

Speaking previously on social media about the role, Bhabna wrote, “When director Asif first approached me with the character of Princess Rozi, my first thought was: how am I ever going to do this? I am a classical dancer. The way we are trained from childhood to carry ourselves and develop our body language, this style of dancing is almost considered sinful in our world.”

Coming from a classical dance background, portraying the character’s dance style and physical expressions proved to be one of Bhabna’s biggest challenges. She also admitted feeling apprehensive about how society might perceive the role.

Reflecting on that hesitation, she wrote, “Then I wondered what people would say. In our country, when an actor plays a character, audiences often begin to see them as that person in real life, especially if the actor is a woman. Then I asked myself what I truly wanted. The answer was that I wanted to play this character. From that moment, Asif and I began our journey to discover Princess Rozi together.”

Asif Islam’s previous feature film, “Nirbaan”, won the Special Jury Award at the 46th Moscow International Film Festival. With “King: In the Land of the Princess”, the director is once again returning to the international festival circuit, this time alongside Bhabna in the role of Princess Rozi.