Dinner with The Last Post Office
An interview with Aung Rakhine, director of The Last Post Office
There is a beautifully poetic quality to the film. First of all, is the post office based on an existing one? Where is it meant to be in Bangladesh?
This film is like modern day fairy tale. Capturing magic realism as a medium to tell our harsh absurd reality.That’s where true poetic image exists for me. This post office is around no man’s land near Indian border.
Is the story around the birds based on anything?
As I said it’s a modern fairy tale, you can interpret in different way. But in between bird represents human. for example, without bird game can’t be played also bird have to be captive.
Can you tell us a bit more about the shoot? How did you choose the location?
Our shoot was really risky cause water level was rising hugely. we had to travel 1 hour by boat to reach shooting location from our accommodation. Flood emerged everywhere. We chose this location because we needed exactly that kind of space foe our story.Where you find touch of reality with magical blend of hills, water and sky.
Can you tell us a bit more about you as a filmmaker and your ambitions for the future?
Like my 1st film My Bicycle and The Last Post Office, I want to tell the story of marginal people. they are lost somewhere, there voice never heard. My next film also on marginal MRO community (editor’s note : a sub-group of Chin people in Bangladesh, India and Myanmar).
Would you say that the short film format has given you any particular freedom?
Yeah, definitely. But also, I needed short film format to tell this particular story. Short film for me like writing a short story or a poem.
The Last Post Office was being shown in International Competition.
