Nuruzzaman Khan

Nuruzzaman Khan is a Bangladeshi filmmaker, artist, and Doctoral Artistic Researcher at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts. His work explores the intersection of truth and fiction in documentary filmmaking, questioning whether cinema can ever represent reality or if it inevitably constructs narratives shaped by perception, ideology, and emotion. At the core of his artistic inquiry lies a provocative question: Does documentary film represent truth or fiction?

For Nuruzzaman, documentary cinema transcends the pursuit of truth. It becomes a space of introspection — a mirror reflecting inner struggles, desires, and contradictions — while simultaneously serving as a potential instrument of propaganda. This tension between imagination and manipulation drives his ongoing investigation into how films about refugees, migration, and identity can both reveal and distort reality. His doctoral research probes this fragile boundary, situating documentary filmmaking within the broader ethical and political debates of representation.

He is a recipient of the prestigious Erasmus Mundus Scholarship for his master’s studies and the Hungarian Government Scholarship for his doctoral research. Currently in the final year of his doctoral program, he is developing three films that examine the porous relationship between truth and fiction in documentary practice. Parallel to his filmmaking, his thesis reflects on his creative process, the socio-political contexts of his subjects, and the ethical dilemmas inherent in depicting the lives of immigrants — a topic that resonates deeply with his own lived experience as a migrant artist.

Nuruzzaman’s filmmaking blends documentary and narrative storytelling, often using personal experience as a lens through which to question collective realities. His recent film, Before the Pandemic and War, There Were Bed Bugs and Love!, is a deeply personal exploration of love, isolation, and displacement during a time of global uncertainty. Weaving together personal narrative and socio-political reflection, the film examines the collapse of intimacy in the shadow of global crises. It has received five international awards — including Best Documentary, Audience Award, and Jury Mention — and has screened at over 25 film festivals worldwide.

Another acclaimed work, Men with No Name, was selected for the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in 2018 — one of the world’s largest documentary festivals — and also screened at the Belfort Entrevues Film Festival in France and other international venues. The film follows two Bangladeshi immigrants in Lisbon as they confront loneliness, invisibility, and the bureaucratic machinery of Europe, illuminating the broader struggles of migrant life in the Global North.

Beyond filmmaking, Nuruzzaman is deeply engaged in exploring the relationship between media technology, attention, and representation. His academic writing addresses how social media and the global attention economy shape contemporary documentary practices, particularly for non-Western filmmakers navigating cultural authenticity and global visibility.

He is also committed to teaching and mentoring emerging filmmakers. Nuruzzaman has conducted workshops on documentary storytelling and served as a jury member for the Verzio International Human Rights Film Festival(Hungary, 2021) and the Community Digital Storytelling Festival (CDSTF) (Bangladesh, 2024). Through these roles, he continues to engage in critical dialogue about the ethics of representation, the responsibilities of the filmmaker, and the evolving role of cinema in mediating human experience.

At once personal and political, Nuruzzaman’s body of work blurs the boundaries between art and activism. His films and research collectively advocate for an ethics of storytelling that embraces vulnerability, multiplicity, and the right to narrate from the margins.