{"id":200724,"date":"2025-01-09T13:46:50","date_gmt":"2025-01-09T12:46:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iffr.com\/en\/?p=200724"},"modified":"2025-01-09T18:59:15","modified_gmt":"2025-01-09T17:59:15","slug":"blog-nffhbf-support-for-prantik-basu-and-shengze-zhu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iffr.com\/en\/blog-nffhbf-support-for-prantik-basu-and-shengze-zhu","title":{"rendered":"NFF+HBF support for Prantik Basu and Shengze Zhu"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Hubert Bals Fund\u2019s joint venture with the Netherlands Film Fund awards production funds to former HBF-supported projects with an attached Dutch co-producer. In the scheme\u2019s first award of 2025, projects by Chinese filmmaker Shengze Zhu and Indian filmmaker Prantik Basu are both awarded \u20ac75,000.  Both former Tiger Award-winners for feature and short work, Shengze\u2019s latest project investigates marginalised teenagers in China\u2019s countryside, whilst Basu explores forbidden gay romance romance in 90s Calcutta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Concept still: A Distant House Smokes on the Horizon<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Shengze Zhu\u2019s documentary Present.Perfect<\/strong>, which won the IFFR Tiger Award in 2019 and was named one of the Best Movies of 2019 by the Chicago Tribune<\/em>, explored the internet’s impact on Chinese culture, particularly among rural youth. Her latest project, A Distant House Smokes on the Horizon<\/strong>, revisits the lives of marginalised teenagers in China\u2019s countryside, this time focusing on those left behind by parents who have migrated for work in the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The film places us on a sweltering summer day where three troubled young teens set out on a reckless plan to escape the confines of their small town. A Distant House Smokes on the Horizon<\/strong> is Shengze\u2019s first narrative project and will be filmed in her home province, Hubei, China. Presented at CineMart in 2024, the project is awarded through its Dutch co-producer BALDR Film B.V.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Concept still: Dengue<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Indian filmmaker Prantik Basu\u2019s films explore the connections between culture, identity and environment. His Tiger Award-winning short Sakhisona <\/strong>(2017) blended folklore with archaeology while his mid-length Bela <\/strong>(2021) captured the ritualistic art and daily lives of Chhau dancers. In his feature debut, Dengue<\/strong>, Basu sets a forbidden romance in 1990s Calcutta, blending themes of nature, love, and societal repression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The film is set during the 90s in the suburbs of Calcutta, a city shaped by colonial legacy and monsoon floods. In a time and place where homosexuality was criminalised, a forbidden romance is unravelled. Under a torrential rain, two young men share an umbrella and become lovers, but symptoms of a violent fever seize one of them. The film is awarded through its Dutch co-producer The Film Kitchen B.V.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exemplifying the impact of the NFF+HBF scheme is the IFFR 2025 closing film This City Is a Battlefield, <\/strong>directed by Mouly Surya \u2013 a co-production between Indonesia, the Netherlands, Singapore, France, Norway, the Philippines, and Cambodia. It was three times supported by the Hubert Bals Fund \u2013 in development, by the Netherlands Film Fund + Hubert Bals Fund Co-production Scheme through its Dutch co-producer Volya Films, and was the final recipient of the NFF+HBF: Dutch Post-production Award. Read more about it here<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\t

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A list with articles<\/h2>\n\t\t\n\t\t
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