ANNiE - A Land-Mark for Bangladeshi Serial Storytelling

The Bangladeshi series ANNiE is set to have its world premiere at this year’s Seriencamp Festival. To mark the occasion, our Artistic Director Gerhard Maier spoke to producer Tanveer Hossain about his work and the series.

With its world premiere at Seriencamp Festival, the Bangladeshi series ANNiE about the struggle of its titular central character gives insight into the strengths of female resilience under extraordinary circumstances.

When director and writer Abdullah Mohammad Saad premiered his feature film REHANA MARYAM NOOR in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard in 2021, he became one of the most internationally recognized voices in contemporary Bangladeshi cinema. With ANNiE, however, Saad is entering new territory. The six-part series, which celebrates its world premiere at Seriencamp Festival in Cologne, marks not only his first major work in the series format but also a significant moment for Bangladeshi television storytelling on the international stage.

In conversation with Seriencamp Festival’s artistic director Gerhard Maier, Saad, lead actress Nazifa Tushi and producer Tanveer Hossain reflected on the creative journey behind the project, the realities of producing ambitious drama within a developing industry, and why ANNiE could only exist as a series.

Why ANNiE Became a Series

For Saad, the decision to move from feature filmmaking into episodic storytelling was not driven by industry trends but by the story itself. According to Saad, ANNiE deals with themes and emotional developments that require more space than a traditional feature film could offer while staying true to his intent of exploring complex characters in extraordinary circumstances.

The long-form format allowed Saad to explore characters gradually, giving audiences time to develop a deeper connection with Annie and the world around her. This approach is particularly significant considering the series' premise. Set against a dystopian backdrop, ANNiE follows a young nurse who finds herself navigating a society affected by a mysterious condition that fuels violence and hatred toward women.

“I want the audience to be able to fully immerse themselves in Annie’s world, see it through her eyes. Like Rehana [the main protagonist of REHANA MARYAM NOOR] she is a complex character with many layers: There is an anger and a defiance to her, a sense of duty to her sisters and a lot of strength.”

Combining the auteur-driven approach of Saad, who wrote, directed and co-produced, the deft touches of a taut psychological exploration in extreme circumstances make ANNiE a stand-out: Driven by the dazzling embodiment of Annie by lead actress Nazifa Tushi, it follows Saad's interest in pivotal themes: “The exploration of power, of gender dynamics and the social structures they inhabit, are at the core of it. But they don’t inform the creation process from the start - it begins with my interest in one character and then grows organically through exploring the world she lives in and seeing it through her eyes.”

Creating Intimacy Through Form

Rather than adopting a conventional television aesthetic, Saad and his collaborators pursued an intimate cinematic approach that places viewers directly alongside Annie and her given and chosen family. The visual strategy was more than an aesthetic choice. It was designed to reinforce the emotional perspective of the protagonist, allowing audiences to experience events through the protagonist rather than observing her from a distance, as Saad explains his vision: “The blocking we chose and the camera movements were quite complex: Marks to be hit, directions to face in, all captured in elaborate shots. The goal was to draw the audience quickly into Annie’s world, to break down the barriers between her and the audience.”

An idea reflected in the production process itself: Tushi recounts how she was slightly intimidated by Saad’s reputation for multiple takes to drill into the emotional core of a given scene. Extensive rehearsals became a crucial part of developing the character, enabling performances and camera movements to evolve organically together.

“The coordination of camera and Tushi’s movements was challenging: A lot of movement, marks to hit, expressions turned towards the right direction. Only through rehearsal it is sure that everything weaves together as intended.” notes Saad.

Tuishi adds in this regard that “working with Saad and his approach was challenging because it was a new way of working - but it was a very rewarding experience to be able to explore Annie as a character so thoroughly.”

Nazifa Tushi's Journey into Annie

At the emotional center of the series stands Nazifa Tushi, one of Bangladesh's most prominent emerging screen actors, known internationally for her breakthrough role in HAWA. Her description of the experience offers a revealing insight into the production process.

Tushi is open about the emotional demands of portraying Annie. When being considered for the role, Tushi was immediately drawn to the character: "I received the script for the first episode beforehand. I read it and was captivated by Annie. But it took several weeks until I could read the whole script - by then Annie was already a big part of me because I imagined how the story would evolve, who she would be as a person.”

Rather than approaching the character as a fixed creation defined entirely by the script, she described a process of discovery that continued throughout rehearsals and filming. Annie evolved gradually, with new dimensions emerging through collaboration with Saad and the rest of the cast. Afterwards, it took Tushi a while to leave the complex character Annie fully behind. “After the shoot ended, I couldn’t be around people for several weeks. I shut myself off and could only interact with close family and friends. It was a very intense experience - exhausting but very rewarding.”

This emotional intensity radiates through every scene Tushi inhabits and is central to the authenticity of her performance: A mix of raw vulnerability and defiant strength that defines the character.

The Challenge of Making Ambitious Television

While ANNiE marks a crucial development of serial storytelling from the region, producer Tanveer Hossain points to the lengthy process that stretched from the initial idea through financing and production; though the first idea for the series formed early, the financing was a complex endeavour. Like many projects emerging from smaller audiovisual markets without formal film funding structures, ANNiE required careful coordination of resources and a significant amount of patience before cameras could begin rolling: “Putting together the financing is always a challenging puzzle - without streamers or broadcasters that commission series and without formal funding structures, projects like ANNiE always involve a lot of personal investment: Taking up loans and activating the network of colleagues and friends.”, as Tanveer states. Yet the filmmakers resisted framing the limited resources purely as a disadvantage. Instead, Saad and Tanveer noted that the restrictions baked into the mode of film-making often become catalysts for creative thinking reflecting a broader philosophy born from necessity: “When you constantly work in that environment with limited infrastructure, it becomes second nature to find solutions to challenges: You learn to organize, to work around it, to approach challenges creatively. Our artistic decision-making is sharpened by it.”

But the challenges do not end with production. International distribution remains a key objective for the team. Access to international sales networks is limited and Saad and Tanveer hope that festival exposure at Seriencamp Festival is a big step towards finding the right partners – essential so that ANNiE can reach international audiences.

Looking Ahead

Following its Seriencamp premiere, the future of ANNiE will depend largely on its ability to secure international distribution. Early audience reactions suggest strong potential as Saad’s unique auteur voice, Tushi’s exceptional performance and the series’ universal themes make ANNiE radiate a distinctive emotional power. If that happens, ANNiE may represent more than the arrival of a compelling new series. It could also mark another step in the growing international visibility of Bangladeshi screen storytelling: ambitious, emotionally resonant and testament to the dedication of film-making under constraints.