20 Great Bangladeshi Films of the 21st Century

After the advent of new technologies such as satellite TV, CD/DVD in 1990s and Internet streaming in 2000s, Bangladesh’s mainstream industry, which was once vibrant, started declining. Meanwhile, since the  mid-1980s, there was a slow but steady growth of independent cinema which started representing the national cinema of Bangladesh by documenting politics, culture and society, both in fiction and documentary genres and by participating in international festivals. Primarily these films were artisanal in look – short in length and technically ordinary; gradually they started to be more mature – full length in duration and comprehensive in film techniques. Since 2000 and onward, Bangladeshi cinema is trying to find its own voice internationally, which is often overshadowed by Indian Bengali Cinema that reached its peak by the contributions of Satyajir Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and others. In the new millennium, Bangladeshi cinema has elevated from the ‘artisanal’ to the ‘global’ stage. Also, there was an evolution in the themes of Bangladeshi Cinema – from rural to urban and from traditional-cultural archetypes to post-modern and post-globalized complex realities.

Except one or two, the selection criteria of the following 20 films was the intend to portray the broader culture and society of Bangladesh instead of just telling a good story or entertaining audience or even just experimenting artistically. The themes of the films are diverse and deep rooted in history and culture of Bangladesh as a nation. The films are described here in temporal order. The selection includes three documentaries.

The 20 Films include: 

1. Lalsalu (A Tree Without Roots, Tanvir Mokammel, 2001)

2. Matir Moina (The Clay Bird, Tareque Masud, 2002)3. Shankhonad (Abu Sayeed, 2004)4. Aha! (Enamul Karim Nirjhar, 2007)5. Lohakhor (Iron Eaters, Shaheen Dill-Riaz, 2007)6. Runway (Tareque Masud, 2010)7. Amar Bondhu Rashed (My Friend Rashed, Morshedul Islam, 2011)8. Television (Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, 2012)9. Shunte Ki Pao! (Are you Listening! Kamar Ahmad Simon, 2012)10. Under Construction (Rubayiat Hossain, 2015)11. Aynabaji (Amitabh Reza Chowdhury, 2016)12. Jonmo Sathi (Born Together, Shabnam Ferdousi, 2016)13. Oggatonama (Unnamed, Tauquir Ahmed, 2016)14. Live From Dhaka (Abdullah Mohammad Saad, 2016)15. Doob: No Bed of Roses (Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, 2017)16. Khacha (The Cage, Akram Khan, 2017)17. Swapnojaal (Giasuddin Selim, 2018)18. Komola Rocket (The Orange Ship, Noor Imran Mithu, 2018)19. Alpha (Nasiruddin Yousuf Bachchu, 2019)20. Made in Bangladesh (Rubayiat Hossain, 2019)

First Published at Asian Movie Pulse on June 12, 2020