Mostofa Sarwar
Farooki’s The Ant Story explores the
issue of contemporary Bangladeshi sexuality from a psychoanalytical
perspective. Briefly the narrative is driven by the search to recover a sex
tape made by an actress (a celebrity). The attempt to recover the tape allows
Farooki to comment on other aspects of contemporary Dhaka City making the film
a powerful critique of Bangladesh in the age of consumption
We
look at this complex film through the lens of Gerard Genette (1980) and his
concept of narrative discourse, emphasising three aspect of narrative, histoire (plot), recite (the voice) and narration (the techniques).
Histoire
An intimate
videotape featuring a film actress and her boyfriend in a compromising
situation accidentally falls into the hands of an ordinary Bangladeshi youth,
Mithu, who is struggling to come to terms with life in the big city. He has
insufficient funds to meet his every day needs let alone his desires – for
consumer goods that are representative of the move of Bangladesh into the
global economy. Consequently Mithu sees possession of the tape in toe ways; as
an opportunity to acquire things and as an investment that may bring power. The
actress Rima contacted Mithu to retrieve
the sex tape but Mithu, realizing the commercial value of the tape in his
possession, becomes a play master and he starts blackmailing Rima.
