In July 1971, there live two friends Yakub and Mukul in a far-flunge village of Bangladesh. They are teachers in profession, Yakub in the village college and Mukul in school. Yakub by nature is a cowardly and confused person. Though he loves his country no less, he has not joined the liberation army for his personal misapprehension. Mukul in contrast has linked himself with the war though not actively. Giving assistance to the freedom fighters has been his main preoccupation. Rehana comes to the village along with the other refugees from the city. She is sister of Yakub’s friend Tunu who requested him in a letter to give her shelter for a few days. In the army crackdown night on March 25, 1971, she was staying in a hall of Dhaka university and was taken by army in a camp. She was raped there and released after some days of captive period. Physical torture by Pakistani Army resulted psychic breakdown on her. But both Yakub and Mukul were not informed about this background of Rehana, they decided to keep Rehana in an abandoned house at a corner of the village and Yakub to be stayed with her. Locked by monsoon water and trees and bushes a story of anguish and love between two young man and woman unfolds in a dilapidated old but palace-like house. They made up a dollhouse by playing, gossiping, cooking together. The dollhouse breaks down after three days when Tunu comes in the scene, tells Rehana’s mishap-story and takes Rehana back. Yakob joins with a guerrilla group.
Based on a novel by prominent writer Mahmudul Haq and with very elegant photography, the film deals with the ethnic struggle towards the formation Bengali-Muslim identity. It also constructs a unique identity of gender where woman becomes the ultimate victim of war.
The film was released in April, 2006 and screened in several international festivals.
No comments:
Post a Comment