Having its world premier in SXSW 2022, where it won Grand Jury Award for Best Midnight Short, Bangladeshi short “Moshari” (which means mosquito net) went on to win multiple Oscar qualifying awards at Atlanta Film Festival, Short Shorts & Asia, and a Jury’s Choice at BIFAN. Its festival path all over the world is continuing non-stop and we just caught it in Fantasia.
The film shows its colors from the beginning, with a dead cow being feasted upon by mosquitoes, while a young girl is chanting a prayer and her older sister urges them to live. It is soon revealed that the two live in Bangladesh, one of the few places in the world that has survived the catastrophe brought by mosquitoes, as a man on a speakerphone heard throughout the area is eloquently spreading. Bangladeshi have achieved that in the simplest of ways, by staying inside their houses at night, and under the protection of their well placed moshari. The tension between the two sisters is palpable from the beginning, as the older one, Apu, is bossy and the younger constantly defying. When night falls, though, the latter has no choice but to listen for her sister and prepare for the attack. This time, though, it seems that not just mosquitoes are lurking around at night.
The messages Nuhash Humayun presents in his 22 minute short are many and quite eloquently portrayed, despite the fact that they are mostly communicated through metaphor. There is an ecological message that seems to state that the water issues that have been tormenting Bangladesh will eventually have an impact in the rest of the planet, and particularly the First World, whose countries seems to ignore the issue. At the same time, the director seems to also state that people from countries that have gotten used to live without much, will probably be more able to survive than the luxury-obsessesed citizens of the rich countries.
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