Desk Report,
‘In the City of Sand’ won the award in a dramatic manner
Mehdi Hasan had a cat. His wife, Mahjabeen Khan, used to collect sand for the cat’s litter box. While collecting sand on a motorcycle, she was bullied on the streets because she was a woman. Mahjabeen often faced strange incidents. Mehdi planned to write a screenplay after hearing those incidents from his wife. All these incidents happened in 2016. The film, which had been in the works for eight years, is called ‘Sand City’. The film had its world premiere at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival. The film won the ‘Grand Prix’ award in the Proxima competition section of that festival. The prize money is $15,000. The award was announced on the closing day of the festival on July 12.
‘In the City of Sand’ won the award in a dramatic manner
The organizers often give some clues in advance about who will receive the award. This indicates whether the film will receive any award or not. But the organizers were not saying much about Mehdi’s film even on the last day of the festival. Mehdi Hasan and his team assumed that they would not receive any award. The film’s lead actress Victoria Chakma also moved to Dhaka.
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Dhallywood
‘Sand City’ wins dramatic award
Entertainment Reporter
Dhaka
Published: 14 July 2025, 10:15
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Director Mehdi Hasan with Mustafa Manwar and co-producer Mahjabeen Khan after receiving the award. Photo: From the official website of the festival
Mehdi Hasan had a cat. His wife Mahjabeen Khan used to go to collect sand for the cat’s litter box. While collecting sand on a motorcycle, she was bullied on the street because she was a woman. Mahjabin often faced strange events. Mehedi planned to write a screenplay after hearing about those events from his wife. These are the events of 2016. The film, which had been in the works for eight years, is called ‘Sand City’. The film had its world premiere at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival. The film won the ‘Grand Prix’ award in the Proxima competition section of that festival. The prize money is $15,000. The award was announced on the closing day of the festival on July 12.
The organizers often give some clues in advance about who will receive the award. This indicates whether the film will receive any award or not. But the organizers were not saying much about Mehedi’s film even on the last day of the festival. Mehedi Hasan and his team assumed that they would not receive any award. That is why the film’s lead actress Victoria Chakma also came to Dhaka.

Movie poster
Director Mehdi Hassan, his wife producer Mahjabeen Khan and actor Mustafa Manwar also left the festival before the end and left for Prague. It is an hour and a half from the festival venue. After visiting there, the director was planning to go to Scotland with his wife, while Manwar was also preparing to leave the Czech Republic. At that time, the organizers suddenly called. They were asked to come to the festival quickly. They did not have much time. The organizers sent a car to their location. Then they were sure that they would get an award. But the Mehdis did not think that they would get the ‘Grand Prix’.
While receiving the award, the director was congratulated by dancing in Czech keta. Mehdi said, ‘This is a great achievement for me. Thank you to the organizers and everyone involved in this. Thank you for inviting us to such a beautiful event. I especially remember my wife, who is here. Love and respect for her. I thank my team members. I cannot express this feeling in words.’
Mostafa Manwar said from Prague on Messenger, ‘We had to spend a lot of time behind the movie. Our hard work seems to be worthwhile in achieving this.’ When asked about which events he remembers, the actor said, ‘We spent six months on the movie before shooting. We regularly chatted at home and at the location. Sometimes we would rehearse. We would go around with the story of the movie in our heads.’
