Char… The No-Man’s Island

2012, Sourav Sarangi, 88 minutes, Indian

Meet Rubel, a fourteen-year-old boy smuggling rice from India to Bangladesh. Every day, Rubel has to cross the river that acts as the border between the two countries, the same river that eroded his home in mainland India when he was just four. Years later, a fragile island called Char formed within the river. Rubel’s family and a group of other displaced people settled on this barren expanse controlled by the border police of both nations. Rubel dreams of going to his old school in India, but reality forces him into a life of smuggling. After a scorching summer, dark monsoon clouds gather and the river swells up again, threatening Char’s existence.

After graduating from the Presidency University, Kolkata, Sourav Sarangi joined the Film and Television Institute of India, specializing in editing. His debut film Tusukatha received accolades at several leading international festivals. Since then, he has worked in editing, writing, directing, and producing both fiction and nonfiction. He worked as the chief editor of an Indian-Italian co-production in Rome and Naples. Sarangi has also worked extensively as a chief programming director for a number of Indian private television channels and served as a jury member for international film festivals.