Private Project

The Stranger

In purgatory, a lonely soul meets Ludwig van Beethoven telling him that the second movement of his seventh symphony makes him cry. He then meets Charles Baudelaire. After returning to earth, our hero starts reciting Baudelaire’s poem ‘The Stranger’.
He is in twenty-first-century Dhaka, Bangladesh. Music and poetry acquire a new meaning-- family is about shabby urban dwellings, friendship about the embrace of social media apps, the fatherland about the alleys of a shantytown. Art crosses boundaries.

  • Abid Hossain Khan
    Director
  • Abid Hossain Khan
    Producer
  • Muhammad Anwar Hossain
    Producer
  • Mohammad Raju
    Editor
  • Rony Mahmoud
    Editor
  • Project Type:
    Experimental
  • Runtime:
    4 minutes 58 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    April 28, 2017
  • Production Budget:
    300 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Bangladesh
  • Country of Filming:
    Bangladesh
  • Language:
    French
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • None
Distribution Information
  • None
Director Biography - Abid Hossain Khan

Abid Hossain KHAN is a Bangladeshi independent filmmaker. He has published numerous short experimental films some of which received national acclaim. ‘Mechanism’, one of his first short experimental films, was officially selected and screened as opening and ending film at the Bangladesh Documentary Festival 2014 and in the Bangladesh Film Category at the New York Film Festival in 2014. ‘Color’, filmed in 2014, was awarded best documentary film at the Celebrating Life Film Contest Dhaka in 2015. His short film ‘20 continuous shots followed by Siddhartha’ was premiered at Curta Cinema - Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival 2016. For this film, he got the award for best documentary at the Celebrating Life Film Contest Dhaka in 2016.
His first feature documentary film ‘Belonging’ is currently in the production stage. This film was awarded at the 17th Hong Kong - Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) in March 2019 (The Wouter Barendrecht Award) and the G2D Post Production Award (presented by G2D) towards a full sound package. For ‘Belonging’, he received a Bangladesh Government Film Grant.
Mr. Khan was the first Bangladeshi film director to be interviewed by the Hollywood Reporter.
Currently, he is working on a number of feature films: a documentary on disappearing professions in Bangladesh, a fiction on exploring life in Dhaka through the eyes of a foreigner, a fiction on a woman reflecting on the challenges she faces in the patriarchal society of Muslim Bangladesh.
Mr. Khan, born and brought up in a small town north of Dhaka, has studied in Sylhet and moved to Dhaka in 2010 where he lived ever since.

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Director Statement

The Stranger is a highly experimental film based on the French author Baudelaire’s poem ‘L’Etranger’. A lonely soul - obviously sick - reports of his meeting Beethoven und subsequently Baudelaire in purgatory, both making him cry. After returning to earth, our hero starts reciting Baudelaire’s poem ‘The Stranger’.
The scenes corresponding to the recited poem show the void: family, relationships, friendship, country, beauty, wealth, - everything is meaningless. What counts is art.