“When the world is ending and all ‘major’ cities are obliterated – what’s happening in Dhaka, Bangladesh? What if they’ve figured out how to survive?” Director Nuhash Humayn on MOSHARI which screens at SxSW 2022.
Welcome to SxSW and congratulations! Is this your first SxSW experience?
This will be my first time in Austin and my first in person event in over two years! Can’t wait to watch our strange little film with the larger film community.
You are back! Tell me about your previous experience here at the festival and what you showed.
How did you first hear about SxSW and wishing to send your project into the festival?
How do you NOT hear about SXSW? It’s just the coolest film festival, and it’s not just a festival; it’s a cultural melting pot of film, music, comedy, VR. Some of my favourite films have opened here. To have MOSHARI’S world premiere at SXSW is still surreal.
Tell me about the idea behind your project and getting it made!
If you’ve grown up in a South Asian home, you’re familiar with sleeping under a moshari, or mosquito net. At night, with the moshari hovering over me as a kid, I would feel safe. I got thinking, what if the moshari kept you safe not just from mosquitos, but something more sinister that could be lurking in the night, seeking your blood?
That thought experiment was running in my head for over ten years until it became ‘Moshari.’ It took over a decade to gather the skills, resources and grit, to make this high concept post apocalyptic horror short happen in Bangladesh.
Who are some of your creative inspirations? Any particular filmmaking talent or movie that inspired you for this project?
Influences range from Amblin films of the 90’s to J-horror to David F. Sandberg’s LIGHTS OUT. But honestly, so much of the inspiration comes from my own childhood: creepy images of the moshari fluttering while I’d imagine shapes and creatures on the other side.
How did you put this together from a technical viewpoint? What sort of cameras/lenses did you use and/or did you have any creative challenges in making it?
Monsters. Low light. Practical effects. Where do I start? The biggest challenge was creating the scope of the film without losing the character drama between Ayra and Apu that’s the story’s heart.
If you had one piece of advice to offer someone to get their start as a creator or filmmaker in the industry, what would you suggest?
Just go out there and make something. You can have an amazing pitch, or a lot of connections but nothing makes an impression like a completed film. A finished film means you can tell a story and that you finish the job. You’re not all talk.
And finally, what is your favourite short film of all time?
THE FISH AND I by Babak Habibifar!
This film and many others like it will be showing at South By Southwest taking place March 11-20. For more information point your browser to www.sxsw.com!