"NEW YORK, LETTERS OF WAR" Short Film

We are so excited to share the first trailer for

NEW YORK, LETTERS OF WAR.

NEW YORK, LETTERS OF WAR

Directed by Sharmistha Saha

Written by Tatiana Kouguell-Hoell

Still by Cameron Tavakoly

THANK YOU to everyone who donated so far, we truly could not have shot this film without your support, the donations you made helped pay the cast and crew members during production.

We are now officially in post-production! Any donation you make will go towards editing, color correcting, sound design and music. We continue to value any and all support and donations while we continue to work to complete the film. Please find updated stills from the film as a sneak-peek from our outstanding cinematographer, Cameron Tavakoly.

Still by Cameron Tavakoly

Summary

Letters from a Jewish family detailing their escape and survival during WWII intertwine with letters from a mother to her son; a German soldier. In present-day New York, a young Jewish woman attempts to confront her grandmother's past as she crafts her own future. Across the park, an American man falls for a young woman from Bangladesh. A song from the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 haunts stories of migration, and their new relationship. When family secrets resurface, they are forced to reconsider who they really are. Follow as these letters, stories, strangers and lovers intertwine in unexpected ways and come together in the heart of New York City.

Still by Cameron Tavakoly

Artwork by Kathi Kouguell

Creative Team

Sharmistha Saha (Director) Sharmistha is an artist-scholar who has lived in many cities across different continents – Berlin, Copenhagen, Madrid, Prague, Mumbai, Dhaka to name a few. At present she is a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the TISCH School of Arts at NYU. She knew from the moment she arrived in New York that she wanted to make a film about the city. In the past her short film ‘Jenga’ has been screened at MoMA Sao Paolo. Most of her work so far has been as a theatre-maker but she is equally comfortable working with the cinematic for which she trained at Prague Film School. She has co-created the work Elephants in Rooms with Gob Squad a German-British theatre company and with Sunil Shanbag a performance called Playing to Bombay. Her plays, such as Her Letters were commissioned by the Tagore Centre in Berlin and Romeo Ravidas aur Juliet Devi was played in many festivals. She has closely worked with the theatre stalwart Eugenio Barba and his company Odin Teatret in Denmark.

Tatiana Kouguell-Hoell (Screenwriter) Tatiana received her BA in Playwriting and Screenwriting from Purchase College, and an MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University. Her previous studies include the University of Amsterdam and Prague Film School. She was a finalist for the Stove Works Residency, as well as the Center at West Park Residency. She is the recipient of the Denis Diderot (A-I-R) Grant as an artist-in-residence at Chateau D’Orquevaux in France. Currently, she is a Lecturer in Screenwriting for the Playwriting and Screenwriting program at Purchase College. Her plays include Bleecker Street Brides (Workshop at Chateau Orquevaux, Staged Reading through Columbia University at Lenfest Center for the Arts), For Molly, co-written with Ciara Ni Chuirc (Lenfest Center for the Arts); Thirty-Six Questions, (The Studio Theater); Everything We Need to Talk About Before We Talk About Sex, (Schapiro Theater, The Tank Theater); Interruptions, (Purchase College, The Tank Theater); and Amsterdam (Stella Adler Studio of Acting). Tatiana is a Jewish-American playwright, who lives in New York City.

Sarah Keyes (she/her) (Producer) is a producer and theatre artist currently living in the Berkshires. She first collaborated with Tatiana in the play Bleecker Street Brides. Her selected film credits include: The Invisible Girl, Good Grief, Tell That to the Winter Sea, and The Bears - which are all currently in post-production. For more, please visit: www.sarahkeyes.com

Cameron Tavakoly (Cinematographer) A cinematographer from Miami, FL, Cameron Tavakoly is working as director of photography to create engaging images that serve the story and, with the help of a great team, create a visually-stunning short film.

CAST

Basma Sheea (Asma) was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh and immigrated to New York City with her mom when she was 7 years old. She quickly acclimated to American culture by learning English songs and attended LaGuardia Performing Arts High School as a vocal major. While learning classical opera in school, she taught herself Lalon geeti at home. Her passion for performing took her to Off Off Broadway and even Shilpokola Academy in her home city of Dhaka. This is Basma's first debut film.

Marlowe Holden (Maya) (she/her/hers) is an actor, writer, and producer. Her latest short film, Women and Elephants, which she wrote, produced and starred in, made its debut on the festival circuit this past year, receiving several nominations and awards including Best Thriller Short and Best Original Screenplay. Most recently she appeared on the season finale of Law and Order. Up next: she will be starring in the indie feature Rose Gold by Ryan Balas, followed by a supporting role in the feature film Love Dogs by writer/director West Eldredge. @marloweholden, https://www.marloweholden.com/

Nick Saxton (Felix) is a New York based actor by way of Minnesota. Prior to receiving his MFA in acting from Columbia, he performed award-winning improv comedy across the country. When Nick's not acting, he's tutoring chess, playing basketball, or writing bios for himself in the third person. https://www.nicksaxtonactor.com/

Still by Cameron Tavakoly

DONATION BREAKDOWN:

$25 to $50- A social media shoutout

$100 - Early screening link, including rewards listed above.

$500 - Special thanks credit in the film, including rewards listed above.

$1,000- Tickets to the screening of the film, including rewards listed above.

Grateful to Kathi Kouguell and friends for sharing their personal histories. This film is dedicated in memory of Kathi Kouguell.

Still by Cameron Tavakoly

Artwork by Kathi Kouguell

Writer’s Statement

Sharmistha and I met over ten years ago while studying together at Prague Film School in the Czech Republic. We immediately connected and collaborated on several short films there. In late 2022, Sharmistha reached out that she was coming to New York. We had stayed in touch through the years, but this would be the first time we were seeing each other again in a decade. We picked right back up and found that our creative shared sensibility had only grown since our time apart. She asked me immediately, "What are we working on? What are we going to make together? When do we start?"

We discussed how my great-grandfather had written letters to a friend of his in the 1960s which detailed how he and my great-grandmother (his Jewish wife) and daughter had survived World War II, and Sharmistha mused that it was interesting because she had a German friend with whom she stayed with while studying for her PhD in Berlin, whose estranged father was a Nazi, and that there were letters from him that he had written to his mother during the War. We talked about how she could be dear friends of both of us, with her own history of migration and war at the center. We quickly realized that we wanted to create something based on these found letters of war, while honoring our family history.

Sharmistha & Tatiana in Prague, 2012

This short film is a passion project, our goal is to create something that is made from not only these found letters of war, but that also honors our friendship and family legacies.

Sharmistha and Tatiana, Prague, 2012

Director’s Statement

This film is a very personal project for me. It is borrowed from the life narratives of two very dear friends of mine who just happen to sit on two extreme opposites of history – the holocaust and yet today they are so similar in so many more ways. My own family, which has a history of migration, has also grappled with a past of the war in its own way. I wanted to tell a story about how we grapple with family sufferings and past traumas, of which our generation may not be, direct witnesses. To me, the city of New York from the very first moment seemed like an anomaly. A city that was not possible because of all the pasts we carry to it as memories. Yet, it stands tall, on and as an island, which makes for ‘home’ for a multitude of us.

Synopsis

Maya finds herself lost in her grandmother’s art studio. Her grandmother, an artist, spent years building houses both in her artworks as miniatures and in the city. Maya finds some letters in her belongings of her great grandfather that for the first time reveals to her the journey her family once took from Germany across the Atlantic to New York City. In Fort Tryon Park, Asma, a literature student at Columbia, waits for her boyfriend Felix, an acting graduate from NYU.

Still by Cameron Tavakoly

She is new to the city and is navigating through this new life and relationship with Felix while remaining grounded to her roots. She shares her past with Felix. She tells him about the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 through songs of Moushumi Bhowmick and Allen Ginsberg. Felix never completely opens up to her.

We find Maya back at her day-job after her grandmother's memorial services. She works as a waitress at a restaurant to pay rent while she struggles to find a fulfilling career path. While clearing off one of the restaurant tables, she sits down reminiscing about the day. She takes a pen from her apron and one of the paper napkins from the table, and begins sketching a house, similar to the houses her grandmother created. Realization washes over her that she has artistic aspirations of her own.

Still by Cameron Tavakoly

At Felix’s apartment, they are cooking dinner. Asma feels annoyed that Felix still hasn’t opened up to her. Asma’s phone keeps pinging with messages from a Russian friend. Felix realizes Asma might be hiding something too. Felix pushes her to the limit when he insists she try food that he knows will give her an allergic reaction. Asma reveals she knows about his family’s Nazi background, discovering letters from his grandfather he kept in his room.

Earlier that day, Felix is on the train on his way to meet Asma, when he encounters Maya on the subway. She is carrying the letters and her grandmothers artworks of miniature homes with her. Maya drops the miniature house. Felix picks it up for her. New York, where the past tries to reconcile as home.