Lost Land - HARA WATAN

Pitch

Hoping to reunite with their scattered family, 4-year-old Shafi and his 9-year-old sister, Somira, leave a Rohingya camp in Bangladesh to head for Malaysia. With a child’s perspective as guide, they embark on a perilous journey. “When I began to think about the story I wanted to tell, I felt a deep need to depict the Rohingya’s journey from their homeland in search of a place where they could live in peace. Their path is fraught with stumbling-blocks : the forces of nature, the exploitation inherent in cross-border trafficking, and the constant hardships that test their strength and resilience. Relating their journey was essential to conveying the reality of the Rohingya—a people with neither nationality nor citizenship, forced to live in precarious circumstances wherever they go, always searching for a place to truly belong… If cinema can be an art form that symbolizes ‘living together,’ I hope that through this film, the Rohingya—who may seem distant to many—will appear closer to us, like neighbours, like friends.” Fujimoto Akio