1. Authentic World-Building (2025 as a character)
Unlike flashy sci-fi, My Aunty -2025 grounds its future in quiet dread: QR codes on bhelpuri carts, AI-generated fines, and biometric scanners at local markets. The director smartly uses 2025 not as a technological wonderland, but as a bureaucratic upgrade – more efficient at excluding the poor.
2. The Aunty – A career-defining performance
Veteran actress Shamima Nazneen (in a rare lead role) delivers what might be the year’s most understated yet devastating performance. Her aunty is not a saint or a victim. She chain-smokes, tells crude jokes, evades taxes creatively, and loves Rumi with tough, unspoken sacrifices. One scene where she counts loose change to buy Rumi a new shirt for an interview – while hiding her own blood pressure medication bill – is quietly shattering.
3. Rumi’s arc – No easy heroism
Young actor Tanvir Hossain avoids the usual “angry young man” cliché. His Rumi is exhausted, tempted by corruption, and sometimes ashamed of his aunty’s unpolished world. The film’s moral climax isn’t a big speech – it’s Rumi realizing he was about to sell their only property to a loan shark, and his aunty stopping him with just: “Ei ghor bikri korte giyechhili? Bosha thak. Cha khabi?” (You went to sell this house? Sit. Want tea?)
4. Visual language – Intimate poverty without exploitation
DP Rashedul Islam uses tight close-ups (stained fingers, cracked phone screens, steam from the tea kettle) and avoids drone shots or skyline views. The final frame – a static wide shot of the aunty’s stall under a flickering neon “Digital Payment Accepted” sign – is unforgettable. My Aunty -2025- FeniApp Originals Short Film 72...
1. Pacing in the middle third
A subplot involving Rumi’s girlfriend (who works for the very corporation threatening the vendors) feels underdeveloped. Their two scenes together are didactic, explaining themes the film had already shown beautifully.
2. The 2025 gimmick
Apart from a few surface details (electric rickshaws, deepfake scam calls), the year 2025 doesn’t add much. The central conflict could have been set in 2023 or 2024 without changes. Some may find the “future” tag unnecessary.
3. Abrupt ending
The film ends on a freeze-frame of the aunty laughing – powerful but ambiguous. A post-credits text note explains the real-life law it was based on, which undercuts the poetry. The last shot should have been the laugh alone. Cons: At first glance, the title feels like
Score: 4.8/5
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Cons:
At first glance, the title feels like a casual home video label. That is exactly the point. Directed by emerging auteur Rehana Sultana (known for her previous FeniApp short Chai & Cyanide), My Aunty -2025- follows the story of 24-year-old Nabil (played by debutant Irfan Khan) who returns to his ancestral home in the Feni district of Bangladesh after a five-year absence triggered by a family feud.
The "Aunty" of the title is Khadija (played by legendary stage actress Shahana Azmi), Nabil’s late father’s sister. Once the vibrant matriarch of the family, she is now a quiet shell living in a single room surrounded by 72 unread letters—one for every month Nabil has been gone.
The film’s 72-minute runtime is a deliberate structural choice. Each minute roughly corresponds to a letter, as Nabil spends one harrowing night reading through her chronicle of loneliness, neighborhood gossip, and silent sacrifices made to keep the family land from being seized. Cons: At first glance