Arakan News Agency
The Rohingya film “Lost Land” was screened on Tuesday at the Venice Film Festival. It is the first-ever Rohingya-language film to portray the tragedy of the persecuted Rohingya minority, featuring an entirely Rohingya cast.
The film competed in one of the festival’s categories and tells the story of a perilous journey of a four-year-old boy and his nine-year-old sister who escape from a refugee camp in Bangladesh, attempting to reunite with their family in Malaysia. Their journey takes a tragic turn when the overcrowded boat they were on suffers an accident, leaving them stranded in Thailand.
More than 200 Rohingya, including the two children who played the lead roles, participated in the film. None of them were trained actors. The film is a French-German-Malaysian co-production directed by Japanese filmmaker Akio Fujimoto.
Director Fujimoto said: “I often heard about the repeated persecution endured by the Rohingya people, and it was hard to believe such cruelty exists in our world today. In Myanmar, openly speaking about the Rohingya was considered taboo, so I stayed silent out of fear for my career. But that silence became a burden and ultimately led me to make Lost Land.”
Fujimoto, known for his socially committed films, has been producing movies in Southeast Asia particularly in Myanmar for the past 12 years.
Co-producer Sajuddeen Karimuddin stated: “What makes this film exceptional is that the Rohingya cast tell their own stories, experiences that most of them personally lived through and which remain an ongoing reality for our people.”
Since 2017, more than one million Rohingya have fled Myanmar’s Rakhine State to neighboring Bangladesh after facing genocide at the hands of the Myanmar military, followed by further violence from Arakanese Buddhist militias (the Arakan Army) in 2023, aimed at seizing control of the state. Today, the Rohingya live in the camps of Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh recognized by the United Nations as the world’s largest refugee settlement where harsh conditions drive many to risk dangerous sea journeys in search of a better life in other countries.
