Tuesday, 9 June 2026 · Issue 074 · The Festival IssueIn theatres this week · Subscribe

Film & Visual Arts, Frame by Frame

What the camera saw

On Location

Shooting Monsoon

Photography by Sadia Marium · Words by Tanha Reza · June 4, 2026

Unit photographer Sadia Marium documented a production that chased the rains across three districts — Cox's Bazar, Sylhet and the Sundarbans — to capture a single, unrepeatable season. 47 shooting days, one monsoon, no second chances.

A film crew sheltering a camera in the rain — Day 19. The crew sheltered the camera under a tarp for six hours waiting for the right downpour. When it came, they shot the scene in a single take.

Camera and director's chair on set — Director Saif Rahman rarely sat in the chair. "You can't feel the weather from a monitor," he told us.

Stage lighting rigged on a wet location — Gaffer Mizanur Rahman rigged practical lights to read as oncoming storm-light — the film's defining look.

Clapperboard held before a take — Scene 64, take 11. The production logged 47 shooting days across Cox's Bazar, Sylhet and the Sundarbans.

A cinematographer composing a coastal frame — DP Anika Tabassum frames the salt pans at first light. The anamorphic lenses, she said, "make the flatness feel enormous."

Actor and crew during a quiet moment on set — Between setups, lead actor Farzana Haque rehearsed alone. "The waiting is the film," she said. "The waiting is the whole film."

The coast at the close of the final shooting day — The last day, the Sundarbans. The rain stopped exactly when they needed it to — the only luck, the crew agreed, that the production was ever given.

"You don't shoot the monsoon. You wait for it, and it decides whether to show up."

Photographs by Sadia Marium · Words by Tanha Reza