KOLKATA: A Bengali film following the challenges of a schoolteacher, whose life was upended after her personal matters went public, has been selected for a world premiere at Busan International Film Festival. Data scientist Sandeep Kumar Paul’s ‘About an Intimate Matter (Ekanta Byaktigata Bishoy)’, starring Sreya Bhattacharya, examines the voyeuristic nature of modern society, placing the educator under public scrutiny while questioning her personal choices, including her sexual preferences.It is the only Bengali film in the A Window on Asian Cinema category. The other two Indian films in the same category are Anuparna Roy’s ‘Lovers in the Blue Night’ and Shahil H Shah’s ‘Birds on Ice’. Marking Paul’s feature film directorial debut, ‘About an Intimate Matter’ was shot two years ago. The supporting cast features Sanjita Das, Shimlli Basu, Sudipa Basu, Sandip Bhattacharyya, Chaiti Ghoshal and Ashoke Viswanathan.While Tajdar Junaid has scored the music for the film, Prateek Pamecha has done the cinematography.Having learnt filmmaking by watching masters, like Abbas Kiarostami, Paul has no film school training. Asked how it feels as a data scientist to have a debut feature selected at Busan, he said, “It doesn’t matter who I am. It shouldn’t matter who will watch this film. They will either like it or not.” About the plot, Paul said, “Swarna, a devoted teacher, faces relentless scrutiny over her private life, navigating moral policing, fragile reputations, and punishing workplace politics, while summoning quiet courage to reclaim her identity.”Lead actor Sreya Bhattacharya expands on this journey, noting that her character is a small-town school teacher in a live-in relationship. “An incident happens in her life that forces her to face societal scrutiny, making her vulnerable,” she explains. “That incident makes her relook at the world around her.”The film’s music composer told TOI that the film deals with a very pertinent subject that needs attention. “I carefully choose the films I want to associate with. Since this is an important film about an important issue that should be discussed, I wanted to be a part of this project,” said Junaid.Although the film is categorized under the LGBTQ+ section on the BIFF website, Bhattacharya emphasizes that it deliberately steers clear of familiar tropes: “Though my character is in a same-sex relationship, we are not underlining it. Often Bengali films on same-sex relationships restrict themselves to exploring physical intimacies only. We were careful about avoiding that and celebrating the partnership of two characters who incidentally happen to be women.”