Feature trailer for Char...The No-Man's Island.
Dams are the new temples of modern India," said then-Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, a statement that signalled his country's long-term approach to its rivers. The Farakka Barrage, constructed across the river Ganges in West Bengal, changed the river's flow and created transient islands. The sacred river forms the boundary between Bangladesh and India, and the survival of the islanders - in the absence of good farming land or industry - is based on a typical border activity: smuggling.
Teenager Rubel was born in India, but his home was washed away by the transformed river. Now he and his family cling to the little they have in the face of crumbling banks and cyclonic tides.
Sourav Sarangi's multiple-award-winning documentary, filmed over a number of years, tracks Rubel and his family's uncertain future with a compassionate and poetic eye.