Juboraj Shamim’s ‘In Between Living’ selected for competition at Russian film festival

Bangladeshi filmmaker Juboraj Shamim’s “In Between Living” has been selected for the International Competition of the 19th International Film Festival East&West: Classics and Avant-Garde in Orenburg, Russia.

According to an official invitation addressed to Shamim by festival president Tatiana Voronetskaya, the film was selected after being “highly appreciated” by the festival’s selection committee. The document requests permission for two possible public screenings, including a second screening should the film be selected as the festival’s closing film.

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The 19th edition of the festival is scheduled to take place in the Russian city of Orenburg from August 21 to 27. The dates mentioned in the invitation are also corroborated by publicly available information about this year’s festival. 

The selection marks another international festival appearance for “In Between Living”, which had its world premiere at the 48th Moscow International Film Festival earlier this year. The Moscow festival’s official listing identifies Shamim as the director and Bangladesh as the film’s country of origin, with a runtime of 79 minutes. 

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Described by Shamim as a “cinematic painting” of his inner emotions, “In Between Living” takes an introspective approach rather than following a conventional narrative structure. The filmmaker has described its creation as a meditative process in which individual frames function as a canvas for his feelings. 

The East&West: Classics and Avant-Garde festival was established in 2008 and focuses on cinema connecting European and Asian cultural traditions. 

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The invitation letter also notes that the winning film traditionally becomes the festival’s closing film. However, “In Between Living” has only been selected for competition at this stage and has not yet won an award.