We had heard that multi talented actor and director, Usman Mukhtar, would be making his debut at Cannes with his short directorial; Bench in which he stars alongside Rubya Chaudhry. Just last month, the film was shortlisted for the Cannes International Independent Film Festival in September.
“With great humility, joy and pride do we announce that Bench has been selected at the first Cannes International Independent Film Festival – CIIFF,” wrote Mukhtar on Twitter. And now, the Embassy of Pakistan in Paris, tweeted about the screening of Mukhtar’s Bench. “Pakistani short film Bench by Usman Mukhtar is being screened today at the Cannes International Film Festival taking place in France from October 18-20, 2020.”
Pakistani short film "Bench" by Usman Mukhtar is being screened today at the Cannes International Film Festival taking place in France from October 18-20, 2020. ???? pic.twitter.com/7NWoyCfoU0
— Embassy of Pakistan, Paris, France (@PakinFrance) October 20, 2020
Mukhtar also took to Twitter to retweet the thread. Bench is a dialogue centric film, penned by Ali Mudar, that sees two people at crossroads coming together to figure out if they should end up apart. Their inner conflicts are explored through the conversation that is had between them. “The film is about two people who meet on a bench. It’s a dialogue based film which takes very interesting twist and turns,” Mukhtar had told Pakistani daily, The Express Tribune without delving into further details.
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Rubya Chaudhry, who plays one of the lead roles in the film, also described it as “An intimate dialogue between two conflicted hearts, looking to find their own truth in life.” The film had also previously been selected for a screening at the Independent Short Awards Los Angeles, 3rd South Asian Film Festival Kolkata, Prisma Awards in Rome and South Asian Film Festival Toronto; making this another feather in Mukhtar’s cap.