Torino Film Lab (TFL) selected Rezwan Shahriar Sumit's first feature film Nonajoler Kabbo (The Salt in Our Water) for a grant of 45,000 euros, for 2020. The amount will be used for marketing and distributing the film.

The announcement was made on TFL's official website recently. TFL Audience Design Fund 2020 nominated three feature films -- a documentary from Italy/United States and two fiction features from Bangladesh and Cambodia for its distribution support and participation in a tailor-made consultancy.

TFL is considered as one of the most competitive development labs in Europe. Founded in 2008, the organisation is supported by the Creative Europe MEDIA sub-programme of the European Union by the Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali, Regione Piemonte and Città di Torino.

Their Audience Design Fund was introduced in 2011 to engage viewers with projects of emerging filmmakers from all over the world. Every year, three films get grants from this programme. TFL helps professionals and feature film teams in distribution, with tailor-made workshops and grants. According to the TFL website, the three projects question people's relationship to the arts and to filmmaking in particular, as well as people's roles in society, raising the voice of a new generation deeply interested in discussing climate change, migration and new scenarios for the future.

The team of Nonajoler Kabbo has also been invited to participate in TFL's six-day online consultancy Audience Design Workshop in September and TFL's upcoming showcase in November, where the director will get the opportunity to pitch the film to sales agents, festival programmers and distributors. Sumit hopes to release the film in theatres after the pandemic subsides.

Nonajoler Kabbo is set in a small fisherman locality on the Bangladesh coastline.  The story follows Rudro, a 32-year-old city sculptor who moves to the secluded area, after his father's demise. Soon, he finds himself in trouble, threatened by the locals, as he tries to find some closure. The film, produced by Ilann Girard, features Titas Zia, Fazlur Rahman Babu, Shatadbi Wadud, and Tasnova Tamanna among others. The music of the movie is composed by Shayan Chowdhury Arnob.

Nonajoler Kabbo was previously awarded several recognised funds, like Bangladesh National Film Grant of 62,500 USD in 2017, CNC Aide aux cinémas du monde fund (France) of 80,000 euros in 2018, and writing grant from Director Spike Lee in 2016. The film was a semifinalist in Sundance Screenwriters Lab in 2017. It was also invited to the Film Bazaar Co-Production Market in Goa, India in 2016, Film Bazaar Recommends in 2019, and IEFTA's Global Film Expression, Cannes Film Festival, France in 2018, and finalist in Jerome Foundation Grant, United States in 2016. Sumit is also a TFL Next Alumni with his second film, A New Prophet.

Rubaiyat Hossain's feature film Made in Bangladesh was the first film from the country to receive the TFL Audience Design Fund in 2018.